Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Box me up

I want to talk about cardboard for a minute. Here is another chance to pretend I am more of a recycler than I am. As I have said before I do recycle the usual stuff – plastics, cans, bottles, cardboard, paper. However, I would pay for cardboard if I had to – it’s a miracle that you can get it for free just about any place! Altering cardboard gives amazing effects – my favorite of which is something I’ll call the grunge wall effect for lack of a better term.

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This is where you paint the cardboard and then strip and tear off random swatches of the cardboard’s “cover” paper - thereby exposing some of the ridges beneath. You can then either paint the ridges a different color or decoupage them with printed tissue, or spray them with ink – there are tons of things you can do with a piece like this. It always reminds me of an old broken down bit of wall that has had layers of billboards come off over the years – or that has had plaster over brick over those wooden slats and is all falling apart at different speeds of time.

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In addition to making a fine altered surface, cardboard also provides a sturdy substrate for all kinds of things that need it, like beeswax collages for example – or works made in tissue paper.

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On my way to the recycling bins over by my library, I might have to stop by the store for some more white acrylic and........well whatever is on sale of course.

For the love of newspaper

I would like to say that the reason my studio is full of newspapers is because I am a recycler – an upcycler – and that this is why so many projects I do have altered newspaper in them. I do try – and I do recycle the usual suspects – but I am afraid I would buy newspaper (and pay dearly for) if it were not free from a recycling bin. I am not using old newspapers to save the planet. While I am happy to help – the fact is that newspaper is one of the most versatile and amazing substrates that any paper artist could ever alter. First – there is the scale of it!
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Newspaper pages are larger than other papers we can typically get our hands on – large enough to wrap things in! Large enough to make whole booklets from a single sheet – large enough to braid or weave – large enough to cover whole canvases – it’s luscious!
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Next – the way it takes gesso and ink is not to be believed! Color saturation is like no other paper. If you have not seen the gesso/ink technique – please see my you tube – you’ll be up all night. And paint! It LOVES paint – watered down, inked up, as a glaze – you name it. Then there is the thinness! You can collage layers and layers of it without creating too much height! It collages into beeswax like a dream – lies flat and becomes translucent.
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I could go on and on but I will end with the fact that it comes “pre-prepared” with words all over it so that whatever you put on next already has delicious depth behind it. I have altered sheets and strips of it hung from clothespins on hangers and bound by large binder clips all about the place – stunning. When I begin a project, I go to the nearest wall and pick some – like succulent fruit from a tree.......and away I go.clip_image008