Monday, November 17, 2008
Fall Handmade Paper Demonstrations
This Fall I exhibited my work and demonstrated paper-making in 2 locations. On September 12 I joined other art instructors from The Center at the Orland Park Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Starbucks Cafe. A percentage of Barnes & Noble's sales that day benefited The Center (www.thecenterpalos.org), one of the places I teach paper-making. I made cast paper by pressing pulp on textured clay molds I've made. After I blot out the water, I dry the "medallions" to paint later and attach to cards.
On October 8, I displayed framed artwork and cast hand-made paper at the Palos Park Metra Station's Crooked Arrow Cafe as part of Palos' celebration of Illinois Arts month. A visiting patron of the arts joined me and made a piece of cast paper on a ceramic cookie mold which I supplied.
A mild Fall, beautiful colors, good coffee, good art. That'll do.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Cast Paper
This description is for the card above:
While walking in my garden in early spring, I saw my rhubarb plants poking up through the soil. I picked this first, tiny leaf and pressed it into clay so I could cast handmade paper and remember how beautiful small beginnings can be.
This cast paper design of a bamboo plant is based on a drawing of a bamboo fountain my daughter gave me for Mother's Day. This recycled, handmade paper is painted with watercolors and acrylic.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Pulp Paintings from photo silk screens
You can see some of these pieces of art by looking at the slide show on this page.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
So what do I do, anyway?
Think of me as a green alchemist. Environmentally green in that I use scrap paper and junk mail, and an alchemist in that I take what would be garbage and make it into handmade paper artworks. I may not spin straw into gold, but I do what I can. The botanical inclusions I put into my work come from my kitchen, garden, and from the gardens of friends and relatives. I cut fibrous stems and leaves into pieces that I cook in my fiber pot, then literally beat them into a pulp and add them to my recycled paper pulp. Other leaves and flowers get pressed and dried to become part of the paper I make, not just glued onto the surface.
Last year my sister sent me dried fern leaves from the asparagus in her garden. I added pressed flowers and leaves from my garden to make a Sisters' Gardens series.