In Jay Delay’s latest series he has taken inspiration from Monet’s “Haystack” paintings but instead of brushstrokes he is applying pixels and instead of haystacks the subject is a trash can. Using a primitive Gameboy Camera to capture the transient effects of light as it gleams upon the toter, which in this image is actually a recycling receptacle. It’s intriguing how he manipulates the colors, intensity and contrast in order to emulate what you see at the bottom of the shot. He uses the perspective shift technique, which uses one camera to capture a scene from the rear and another from the front and vice versa.

Jay mentions in the video that he’s taken to using Duct Tape and wiring his camera into his Wii remote. Although we’ve never played Wii Sports, we imagine that what he was doing “IS” art.

The unlockable link reveals an animated gif that contrasts the outside of the toter with a gameboy photo of its interior contents. This dual depiction gives the viewer a feeling of being two places at once, as the images of can and trash wash repeatedly across the retinas.Jay explains the process of creating the visuals in a more visual way:

There are a lot of different techniques and textures used to create the final effect. It was a lot of experimenting with different backgrounds, drawing the shape, painting, etc. You name it, we did it. All the frames were shot with the Gameboy Camera and exported with a simple video capture program. The texture is created by the Gameboy Camera, which is a set of connected pixels. Each Gameboy has a built in light sensitive sensor. When exposed to the sensor, each pixel in the photo is converted into light. The tones are converted into grayscale values, and each pixel is turned on and off. After converting the colors into grayscale values, the pixel values are combined to create the final color. The “Haystack” image doesn’t change, the texture changes, and the entire structure is made of pixels. The textures of the toter are all made of Gameboy pixels. The shadows on the toter are Gameboy shadows. The color is then digitally hand painted onto the trash can, or in this case a recycling bin  For the second toter we wanted to create an image that would be much more memorable than the first one, since it wouldn’t be easy to recreate it the next day, and the shadows would probably fade over time. We thought of doing the same texture that was used for the first trash can, but in a night scene with light from outside. That’s how the pinkish light is created.

To light the scene properly we used a camera on a stick to capture the first frame of the scene. Then, using that image, the light from the toter was generated using several Gameboy flashes. We created the shadows by inserting “painted” Gameboy pixels that were stored on a scratch pad into the shadows on the garbage can. Then the scene is captured using the same Gameboy Camera and that frame is reconstructed, or made pixel perfect.

Thanks to blockchain technology this trash will be around for a long time. I’ve noticed that people can look at the pieces and instantly know what the picture is, and why I’ve made it, but sometimes they just stop and look at the piece and take their time. This is a very hard piece for me to explain, it’s one of those “feelings” pieces. It’s a great piece of art to hang on your wall and appreciate when looking at it from all angles.

The quick video is an enhanced version of Jay’s YouTube video where he demonstrates the process of making the pieces. He begins to explain the idea behind his piece but then quickly turns his attention to the weather and mentions that he can’t paint on a cloudy day, he needs sun. He then pans the Gameboy camera to the front of his house, where he explains that the houses on his street are bathed in the light from the nearby sunset. When the sun is at its highest, a beautiful pink glow envelops the block. This adds another layer of depth to the piece and the pieces quickly come together to form one cohesive artwork.

Another video reveals the work in progress on the piece, where we can see the base of the trash can as Jay is adding detail. He can also be seen toiling away in his basement room where he creates all of his pieces. When Jay is satisfied with the amount of detail, he takes the piece down to the street. Jay explains that when he places his trash toters on the street in the wee hours of the morning, most people think they are manhole covers, but that he is only trying to set a mood. His trash toters now reside in a central location in his neighborhood that can be viewed by anyone walking by, but unfortunately the sun sets quickly and it is dark in the morning, so the piece is rarely ever seen by any passing cars or passers-by.

My personal favorite piece by Jay Delay is the piece called “Easy Street Art”. This particular piece is a recycling bin that can be seen near the corner of Franklin Ave and Broome St in Manhattan, along with a toter placed in my home town of Nashville. Jay and I met for the first time at the Renegade Art Fair in 2006, where he showed his pieces for the first time in a city where he lived. He visited Nashville on one of his many cross country trips, and moved here from Texas to pursue art full-time.

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• GPT-2