Trained as a traditional landscape painter, artist Mariah Reading finds her “canvases” in the discarded human debris she encounters during her extensive travels through the U.S. National Parks and natural environments. The physical pieces of trash are painted on one side and intentionally left untouched on the reverse so the original objects remain evident. She then photographs the painted objects so that they align with the physical landscape, both obscuring and highlighting their identity. The previously unsightly trash is therefore rendered “invisible” through the camouflage of Reading’s artistry.

Much of the debris Reading encounters in the wilderness had a previous function in a domestic environment. Her installation in the Playhouse returns the transformed found-object paintings to their domestic origins, bearing the memory of their encounters with nature.