What would you do if your studio were destroyed? All your work, research materials, experiments, equipment, work-in-progress…gone.

Coke O’Neal, “Happy Little Accidents”. Installation view. Courtesy Mixed Greens

“Happy Little Accidents”. Installation view. Courtesy Mixed Greens.

A few short months ago, this happened to New York photographer Coke O’Neal (and many other people) during Superstorm Sandy. Those of us who don’t live in New York have probably already forgotten the devastation caused by the storm, but O’Neal was forced to reckon with the destruction in a serious way, with impressive results.

Coke O’Neal. “Little White Horse”, 2013 (left) and “The Beauty of Truth”, 2013 (right). C-prints. 24 x 16 inches. Courtesy Mixed Greens.

While surveying his flooded studio he came across some water-damaged, old family slides that provide the material for this solo show.   Some of these documents transformed by the forces of nature retain traces of their original content, while others are almost completely abstract. Every piece beautifully symbolizes the combination of mundane and unpredictable events that tend to define our lives.

Coke O’Neal, “I.L.J.F.”, 2013, C-print diptych each panel measuring 16 x 24 inches.

Thankfully, rather than forcing us to weep at the beauty and horror of it all, O’Neal brings some humor to the situation, referencing Bob Ross in the title of the show.

“Happy Little Accidents” is on view at Mixed Greens through April 20, 2013.

-Contributed by Kelly Inouye