Paper Glut Leads to Eco Art Boom

The Wall Street Journal—of all places to find a story about ephemera—wrote a great story about the rise of the eco artist in the Friday, January 2 edition. The article by Joel Millman and Robert Guy Matthews, for those that missed it, went into great detail about the exploits of several eco artists, including Barbara De Pirro, who crochets handbags and baskets of out of paper ribbons cut from shopping bags. (Note: Barbara has agreed to an interview about her work in an upcoming post. Be sure to subscribe to my feed so you don't miss that post or any upcoming stuff.)

In the Journal story, Barbara says she treasures Nordstrom's bags for their beautiful royal blue color, but her true love is a bright red sack with silver lining from Target Stores. According to the article, there appears to be no shortage of paper debris to collect these days. Falling prices for recyclables has resulted in a glut, which leaves a bounty of raw materials for enterprising artists like De Pirro.

If you're an eco artist, especially one that focuses on paper objects, please post a comment and tell us about your endeavors.