I've had a lot of fun this year discovering artists who repurpose discarded books, such as Lynn Klopfer of Brown Bag Books, Suzanne Keolker of Mugwump, and Tyler Bender of Tyler Bender Book Co. These artists primarily reuse the covers, which left me wondering about how the pages themselves could be repurposed......until now.The owl, peacock, and flying bird are amazing papier mache/paper sculptures by artist Kate Burger. My family and I had the chance to participate in a Kate Burger and Milk + Bookies workshop event this past weekend at the Skirball Cultural Center. To my delight, Kate's paper of choice was discarded book and magazine pages.
(By the way, Michael Fritzen, Director of Family Programs at the Skirball, consistently cranks out incredibly creative programming. Check it out if you're in L.A. and have the chance.)
The brown and black tinting on the peacock's wing tips was achieved using spray paint.
The birds' beaks (except for the owl's) were fashioned from Model Magic.
At the workshop, we helped feather a papier mache owl that Kate had prepared ahead of time. This book page has been stenciled with the owl's soon-to-be wing feathers.
Expert owl-maker hard at work.
It takes a village to build an owl.
Every feather just so..........
Here's some fun effects that can result from the use of colored pages. From faces on feathers........
to a man offering grapes (the latter courtesy of my ever-imaginative hubby:).
The expert owl-maker surveys the evolving avian artwork.
Before leaving the workshop, we all had the chance to create bouquets from discarded book and magazine pages. The expert flower-maker invites me to sniff his creation. Ah, the smell of reincarnated books.
