While some artists have to buy material before starting a project, Woodstock-based illustrator David Goldin works with whatever is laying around. Everything from nails and wrenches to crushed YooHoo cans are fair game when it comes to putting together his collages.

Goldin said that the things he uses for his collages is "More garbage-y stuff [like] used up train tickets. In Morocco, [it was] used up cereal boxes. Just stuff you find on the street or stuff that graphically catches your eye." He added that, rather than using a white-colored piece of paper, he prefers old newspapers from other countries. "One reason I like foreign material is it has graphics on it that you might not recognize," said Goldin.

Because of the way he puts together his art, Goldin's work is considered digital collage. By photographing his work, he can manipulate the pieces on a computer using Photoshop. "Sometimes it's nice to have the flexibility of doing it digitally because you can resize things," said Goldin. "In this piece, the bottle rockets were the wrong size so I could resize them without having to physically build something," he said of the cover image, Fourth of July.

An unabashed collector, Goldin will use anything that is easily accessible to create his work. This is most notable in a soon to be published book series called The Little Junkyard. "Basically it's a joke, cause I'm a world famous international junk collector. When I go through customs and they open my bags, they see all this garbage from Morocco or Egypt," said Goldin, who then has to explain to quizzical officials why he's bringing Middle Eastern trash back in his luggage.

Recently, Goldin completed a piece for the Wall Street Journal about iPods. "They sent me nice photos of iPods and their competition. And I turn them into the bodies of these characters doing the old 98-pound weakling thing on the beach where one guy is kicking sand in the other's face," Goldin said.

Goldin has three upcoming shows in Los Angeles in July, August, and December. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Esquire, and the Boston Globe, among other publications. His work can be viewed online at www.davidgoldin.com.