Ray Bernoff

Trash Painting #13

mixed media art waste (acrylic, linocut scraps, paint tubes, sandpaper, nitrile gloves, paper towels) on canvas

20″ x 24″

2023-2024

In my series ‘Trash Paintings’, I only use waste materials — both leftovers from other projects and media that are old or otherwise unusable. Creating with waste emboldens me to explore textures and compositions I’m scared will be ugly. What’s the worst that could happen? It’s already trash. Trash Painting #13 integrates discarded and unwanted materials from friends, familiy, and community members: gunky paint, abandoned embroidery projects, half-dried glue. It inspired my upcoming series ‘Community Trash’.

@rmhbernoff

Ray Bernoff

Safe Foods

Inspired by: David Seltzer, Sea Salt/Lemon Sage

aluminum foil, stone clay, Hershey’s kisses wrappers and plumes, found objects, cardstock, spray paint, acrylic paint, glass microbead paint

12” x 24”

2024

With celiac disease, every meal is a risk. Gluten hides everywhere, from restaurant griddles to soy sauce and licorice. Since my diagnosis, I’ve identified “safe foods” I can always trust not to set off an intestine-destroying immune response: whole fruit, plain potato chips, most hot dogs, Hershey’s chocolate. When I’m stranded and hungry, I look for them. Drawing on the bright colors and abstract inedibility of David Seltzer’s ‘Sea Salt / Lemon Sage’, I made my safe foods easier to find by rendering them in an ANSI-inspired worksite safety palette. Use the headlamp for the full high-visibility experience.

@rmhbernoff

Ray Bernoff

The Wound Will Not Heal

paper clay, spackle, acrylic paint, PVA glue, varnish, expired medication, and unicorn milk pearlescent topcoat on canvas

10″ x 10″ x 3″

2022

I’m sick and disabled. Everyday I take pills. At my worst, I was throwing back fifteen a day. I get so fed up I could scream. I am filled to bursting with anti-inflammatories and beta blockers and pain meds and antidepressants and vitamins, filled until I could tear open. This relief sculpture did not bring me ease, but did let me reveal for a moment what I normally hold back.

@rmhbernoff