More recycled art

Recycled Collage with fused plastic bags

Our on-going rental problems have been keeping me from my favorite blogs lately, but I finally had some time to catch up on a few. Martha Marshall has an interesting post on her blog about working with Tyvek. I perk up when I see someone like Martha doing creative things with cast-offs, such as Tyvek envelopes. The concept of using recycled materials in art, as well as all aspects of life, is appealing to me, especially now that the world's economy and climate is teetering on collapse. I recycled some plastic bags by fusing them with an iron recently, which led to almost asphyxiating myself in the process and a much fussed over abstract painting. Not to be deterred, I used some more of the pieces in my sketchbook. I had tried to fuse some leftover wax paper (I use it under paper in my sketchbook to keep the pages from sticking together when I paint) in between the bags to give some color, but they didn't stick together properly. The elements I used in the above collage are the bottom pieces of the plastic bag and the wax paper. Somehow they did stick. I still have more pieces left to recycle, along with dryer lint, packing "peanuts" and tree bark. I'm not sure where this is leading--probably a circuitous trip to the dump ;D