Nonfunctional

During my trip with Land Arts of the American West in 2018, I explored different plant materials to make "paper. ' Using basic methods and techniques to breakdown the fibers, but still maintaining the characteristics of the plants. Some of the "papers" that I made were composed of bananas, cattails, or poison ivy. After 3 months doing field research and experimenting, I wanted to share my process with others. So I organized two workshops that allowed the public to join me on a walk around the University of New Mexico campus gathering materials, thanking the plants that we collected from, and sitting down to make the paper. We also added in some more colorful recycled paper to make it more interesting. These thin, dry, plant pulp squares are technically considered paper, but most of them are not functional as paper. These are papers that are to be looked at and understood by the context of the process and material, but that is also what art is.