Old paintings, magazine photos, discarded book pages, and calendar images have been transformed and are part of The Art of Recycling exhibit in Washington’s Public Library. Local artist Carol Ray, a former art teacher, created the pieces by combining pieces of different work into one product, “My favorite one is one of the woven ones. I used to teach textiles classes and I always loved weaving. And I discovered paper weaving was a nice way to introduce weaving to people, and also you don’t need all of the equipment for paper weaving, you don’t need a loom or anything. My favorite one is three paintings done by an older student of mine at UP Home. And as I began to cut the paintings apart, what I saw was all his brush strokes, and all the different colors, and it was like I saw the details because I wasn’t looking at the subject matter, I was just looking at the paint. And then the other ones where I’ve done a collage, is I just like to take well-known works of art and put them some place they aren’t usually thought to be.” An example of mixing is a grove of goddesses from different cultures placed together in a photo of a forest.

She encourages people to create art beyond a hard, straight-lined boundary. See Ray’s work in the Helen Wilson Gallery on the second floor of the library throughout the month of September.