29"x18.5"

It all began at the Recycling Center in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Elaine Ashburn noticed people leaving large objects—like old streetlamps and antique velvet couches—outside the recycling bins. She was fascinated—to her they were beautiful objects that needed to be preserved. Since she couldn’t bring them home, she started taking pictures of everything she found: galoshes, angels, glass bottles, tattered tarot cards and dusty jewelry. She became fixated and went back week after week for more.

Elaine seemed to have developed an affinity for junk.

An advertising art director by trade, her Photoshop abilities were very good, so she started making collages. Her first few attempts lacked personality, but she was determined to turn these finds into art. Using her art school skills, the art history classes she snoozed through, and anything else she could conjure up, she stuck with it. Little by little, she discovered a pattern of interpretation and digital découpage was born.