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!

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!

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.

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.