Slag / Island is a collaborative effort with artist Amanda Smith. We think of this work as a love letter to our warehouse studio, a space containing a 3-acre collection of cast-off objects. In Rick Bass’ story Pagans, a trio of teens find a “slag island” – a riverside collection of waste industrial equipment – and proceed to polish, repair, and alter the discarded junk to create a world of their own. Like these characters, we explore our shared interest in landscape through the ritual process of turning junk material and discarded objects into something precious. All images are from the exhibition installation at Tugboat Gallery in Lincoln, NE.