As an artist who primarily uses paper as both my support and medium, I find myself torn in two directions. I sympathize with the need to recycle and conserve, however I am incurably obsessed with all the sensual qualities of paper, so much so that I continuously use mass quantities of it. This body of work seeks to resolve that disparity as I come to terms with the paper waste involved in art making and my own inability to cure my paper addiction.
The use of collaged imagery from children’s books that have been withdrawn from the Saskatoon Public Library System, reveals my interest in both mundane recycling activities, and the idea of recycled thought. My fascination with childhood imagery stems from the familiar phrase: “Children are the Future”. As an adult, I am cursed with the guilt that I am now the present embodiment of one anticipated future however I have failed to deliver any miracles. Indeed my contribution of artwork hinders rather than helps our global environmental reconstruction.
Children’s stories, fairy tales, and fables are often re-tellings of older works in order to share some kind of moral lesson. I have appropriated this imagery to record moments of contemporary adult story telling. Rather than seeking to express a complete narrative, the arrangement of imagery references one thought bubble.
