How I Pepper Paper

Lots of people ask me how I came up with the name Peppered Paper. Those that know me well may remember Pepper, a blue heeler mix with fuzzy white hair and little black spots on his back. Those that know me better may know about my strong affinity for Dr. Pepper, inherited from my great grandmother whose husband owned the ice plant in Mayfield, KY. Stories of getting sodas and candy for a nickel at the ice plant were told countless times around my grandmother's breakfast table. Unfortunately, I inherited her sweet tooth. However, I think these images do the best job of showing how the name came about, besides just thinking it's catchy.

I mostly work using painted paper collage. My technique is intriguing, part of my process being so loose and intuitive, and the other part being completely meticulous and detailed- the painting and splattering versus the cutting and pasting. I always lay out thick white paper on my drafting table to collect the splatter and strokes that don't quite make it onto the paper I'm preparing. After months, when this drop sheet is just right, I roll it up and save it. I love it. I think I am really an abstract expressionist at heart. I'm planning on framing some of the best of this collection to hang in my studio. Hopefully I'll get something on the walls soon, and I'll post some pics when I do. Until then, I think I'll start posting more of these peppered papers, just because I find them so beautiful and would like to share them. Hope you like them!