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About this piece: I started out a long time ago working with fiber, and I find myself returning again and again to those domestic reuse traditions. I save plastic bags and packaging for fusing, and try to pay attention to the patterns, beauty and care that went into the original design and manufacture of the materials. We may think of them as “throw-away” or recognize their environmental impact, but I also want to call attention to the visual beauty they represent.

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About this piece:  This piece is called, “Blue Moon”, inspired by the saying “once in a blue moon” – which is something I never quite understood since I’d never seen a blue moon – this was a project that was not of my usual studio practice (A once in a blue moon).  I generally embrace one off projects, as they tend to enrich my practice and my way of thinking about art. Similar to when you take a different route home than the usual, there’s always something new to see and learn.  As mentioned before, this blue moon opportunity allowed me to truly commit to saving and using plastics – in theory sounds good, in practice is difficult. It was an enlightening experience, like what I think a blue moon should do. Though I’ve never seen a blue moon, it’s elusive. Just like the plastics – we don’t see it when it’s packed away in the recycle bin under the sink, in the garage or in a landfill.

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About this piece: The plastic bag has one of the shortest intended life spans.
Plastic which is clean
Recycling you can see

Having worked with the plastic bag as my primary material for the past twenty years, all of the obvious references to recycling, first world culture, class, high and low art give way to an almost formal process which reflects the unique flexibility of the medium.

Cut like paper, sewn like fabric, these constructions have been presented as flat art (framed or mounted) with crumpled and shiny surfaces that are dulled by dirt and time: un-useful pieces of their former selves. The work is becoming more sculptural; literally folding off of the wall, hinged by discombobulated handles, the real potential of the medium presents itself to me.

The material’s relationship to marketing and advertisement culture is ever present, unavoidable and inherent in my work. The graphic text on the bags often influences the theme of a piece, but just as often disappears into the background of color, almost becoming subliminal in the work.
The somewhat dirty, hands-on approach involved in working with what has already become trash and the labor involved in the sewing process directly belie the promise and mythology of convenience that the plastic bag represents. In this juxtaposition lives the alchemy of my work, like the alchemy of plastic itself.

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About this piece: This is the third plastic twine crochet piece I have made. I did some research on how it was used and what it replaced. Haywire was used to bale hay. When we say something goes haywire, it refers to how haywire was reused to repair anything that broke on a farm. Sisal twine then replaced the wire and then the polypropylene twine was developed. In the 1970’s the plastic twine was perfected, so it became widely used. Both are still used today. A volunteer worked at a horse stable and brought the twine to SCRAP. She moved away, and it is no longer being saved for SCRAP. I finished it with plarn made from newspaper bags. Part of reuse is adapting to what is available.

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About this piece: I found the plastic monkey in the street while going for a walk so I created the art piece around him.  I have participated in the Plastic Challenges and plastic quilt art shows since the beginning.  The spiral image is a recurring theme in my plastic work.  In this case it symbolizes the out of control spiraling of plastic use, particularly the plastic waste on our streets, in our landfills and in our oceans.  My art piece, “Monkey Business,”  is made from plastic food bags, plastic buttons and the aforementioned plastic monkey (which I believe came from a Barrel of Monkeys game).

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About this piece: three pieces from dog food bag [exterior white plastic, “foil” interior and brown paper liner] black plastic pull tab from the top of a cat food bag and one pearlish dome-shaped earring. Layers were sewn together on a sewing machine using brown thread. White plastic was glued on the back.

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About this piece: I’ve been collecting some very beautifully designed dog-food bags instead of throwing them out. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with them when this project came up. It looked like a worthwhile and fun project that ended up being a kick-start to using plastic materials in my fiber art. Inspired by the materials and the online images from other plastic artists, I cut my materials into strips, then wove and sewed together my square.

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About this piece: The artists worked together to assemble something beautiful from what is often an overlooked and reviled material: white plastic refuse. We paid special attention to the textures and shapes of the items as we layered and attached them; the student artists took turns adding paint to call attention to the lines and surfaces of the plastic chunks. Keri sprayed the whole piece with webbing to create a cohesive look to our plastic collage.

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Recycling is not the answer to our plastic addiction.  In reality, very few plastics are recycled because the process is expensive and there is very little demand for recycled plastic material.  The first “R” is truly the only cure.  Reduce. Reduce our consumption, reduce our want, and reduce corporate greed that pollutes our oceans and litters our streets.

This piece is titled “Recycle Hope.”  The center piece actually says “HDPE” (high-density polyethylene), but at first glance it looks like HOPE.  I believe “recycling” hope, no matter the source material, spurs social, political and global movements.  Sometimes it feels hopeless, but if we continue to inspire others, be inspired by others, and support projects like Create Plenty, then there will always be a glimmer of possibility.  My wish is for this piece to instill hope in each viewer that they will pass on to others.

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About this piece: The sucky thing about being a responsible “grown-up” is that trying new things is actually kind of discouraged.  That pesky work ethic tells us that time we spend fumbling with a new interest could be used to invoice, or network, or do something called “professional development,” whatever that is.  Nuts to that.  I miss being in Boy Scouts, where instead of punishing the dilettante, he is celebrated, and the most varied skill sets are honored with a sash full of merit badges.  There’s no equivalent for us grown-ups, so I made my own badges to reward myself for stepping away from the work station recently and trying something new.

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About this piece: Stick Together is made with some of the single use plastics that came into my household over the last few months. Created by melting many small pieces of these plastics together to form interesting textures and patterns, then held together with acrylic medium and glass head pins.

In years past, I would have thrown most of this plastic packaging into the trash. Now I have located alternative sources to recycle these many of these types of “non curbside” plastics, or choose products that do not come packaged in plastic, often a very difficult if not impossible task. I was inspired by the idea that if we join together to inform, educate and demand changes, many of these plastics can be replaced by more earth friendly alternatives. Create Plenty has inspired me to make changes in my life to eliminate or find alternatives to plastic packaged products, and to keep plastics from going in the trash.

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About this piece: I was originally going to make something very different, but I had been caring for my mother in her final month of life and hadn’t even started my project. When I finally sat down to work on it after her passing, I realized that I really needed to do a mandala. The plastic boats I found at SCRAP really set the course, so to speak, for this piece. Life is a journey and full of cycles. One phase ends and a new one begins.

It seems only fitting to use recycled materials to reflect this aspect. I am constantly saving things like bottle caps and scraps of paper to use in my mixed media pieces, but this was the first time I used a plastic bag. I used it just as I have used tissue paper in some of my pieces, and I have to say I really like the strength of the plastic, as well as its transparency and ability to take on texture. I will definitely be adding colorful plastic bags to my supply stash as they come into my life.

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About this piece: When I think of “create plenty” I think of the abundance provided by nature. We live in a disposable society and I hope we can begin to be more aware of how we use and manage our resources, which nature provides us.

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