For the past ten years, Philadelphia-based artist Kim Alsbrooks has been painting miniature portraits on flattened beers cans and fast food containers. Alsbrooks finds trash that has already been flattened on the street, and chooses a portrait to fit each specific piece of trash. She gessoes them, draws the image in graphite, paints with oils and varnishes. Generally, she depicts miniature portraits from the watercolor on ivory era (17th-18th century more or less).

Her series “My White Trash Family” began when she was living in the south and found herself frustrated with prevailing ideas of class. She expresses are dissatisfaction by essentially painting portraits of aristocrats and social elites on trash.