Over the past two weeks I have been busy making paper. The water that I collected from the Meadowlands park is surprisingly still fresh feeling and smelling – no sliminess or stinky smells. When I used water from the ocean in the north of Maine this summer, the water became somewhat disgusting within days. It had a strong odor and would start feeling slimy. The Meadowlands water is a bit murky, brownish in color, where as the Maine ocean water was very clear.
I also returned to the park to collect plastic bits from the shoreline. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as the park is lovely, and doesn’t appear to have a garbage problem. However, when you start looking for it, you start finding the smallest bits of garbage everywhere. After I started seeing small bits, I found some larger piece of garbage that were buried in the soil… even whole tires partially submerged. The tires made me start to think about the park and the landfill and the concept of our land being literally made of garbage. When we dump our garbage in piles and piles and cover it with soil and pretends it’s not there, does it bubble its way up to the surface anyway?
I collected a plastic bag full of plastic pieces, mostly small pieces but a few interesting large pieces. It is strange to start picking up garbage and realize that there is so much garbage built into the soil that it barely matters what you pick up. You start to be selective about the garbage you pick up. It’s very strange.
I am currently marbling the paper and working on creating stencils to make my prints at the Newark Print Shop. I am currently looking for tyvek. Amazon only has the thin stuff, and I am looking for tyvek on a roll. I also need to measure the width of the insets in the wall so that I can construct the individual tyvek panes and find the appropriate length tension rods.
