Mandalas: Post-consumer Plastics

In 2002 I began collecting post-consumer plastic bags and wrappers for collage material. I use an exacto knife, and the slow deliberate action of cutting, to extract, alter and subvert the advertising graphics, and with an inherently playful nature, I wrestle them through the sieve of formal beauty until they are no longer useful for marketing. Ultimately, I use these altered advertising images to create ebullient artworks in a mandala format. Mandalas, associated with wholeness and healing, are a non-religious, universal tool for meditation composed of highly decorative, symmetrical patterns. Making plastic bag mandalas is a joyful act of defiance, creates a commentary on ecological awareness, and reveals the hidden beauty of disposable items that continually pass through our hands.

Mandalas