The household plastic recyclable works directly reference historical still-life paintings that traditionally infer the fleeting nature of existence and the passage of time but use a material that will remain long past the lifetime of any given viewer. The chaotic and overflowing arrangements confront the reality of American resource consumption habits and the consequences of our consumeristic quest for objects. We are a value-centered society, and so I use a sense of irony to question those preconceptions and labels. Is it art or craft, treasure or trash, beautiful or offensive? Touring a Venetian glass studio and witnessing the traditions passed from generation to generation inspired this work. I chose recyclable plastics as a marker for what we are passing on to the next generation and formed each flower with the same intensity I witnessed in Venice. The process pushes the limits of the material and notions of cultural value while affirming studio craft labor and the role of the artist’s hand in producing these works.