Paper Bag Art

After living many years on a farm where we were responsible for carting our garbage to the dump I learned to recycle before it became vogue. I looked at the packaging of the things I bought, tried to use my own cloth bags, I had a compost pile, sold my cans, and generally tried to live a fairly clean life. I am still on that path, although I do not have a compost pile and live a coastal life now. I am still recycling. Brown bags are my thing right now. I am trying to use them in my art either as art or as workspace covers. When they become so saturated with paint and ink it starts to show up on my art I remove the paper bags and make a collage out of them. These are two such collages.

I cut a piece of chipboard the size of my journal pages and covered both sides with the painted and inked paper bag. I then used a few images that I had discarded because of ink issues with my printer, inked and painted a little more. Sewed around the images to give them a frame and stamped with some stamps I had not used in ages. The pages are bold and somber all at the same time. Sort of like how I was feeling.