Street Abstractions

“Street Abstractions” are a series of images of abstract shapes I find on sidewalks and streets, mostly from the neighborhood where I live. Often created by leaks from garbage bags left at the curb or dropped liquids, residue of winter street salt and the like, most people would see only ugliness… if they notice at all. I like to find beauty in such unexpected places.

The look of an abstract painting is what I’m trying to evoke (I’ve always been drawn to abstract expressionism). I do beef up the color and contrast and do other enhancements of the digital image, but the shapes are as I found them, framed to make an strong design. They vary as to the degree for which they have identifiable details, but it is the abstract graphic quality I’m looking for in this series.

I live in the East Village in New York, and though the neighborhood is getting more gentrified (and destroyed) by the second… it is still not the cleanest of neighborhoods. I have found this to be of great benefit to me, as there is always something new to find spilled, dropped, or dragged on the sidewalks in just in the handful of blocks I typically wander.