Woman turns junk mail into art

AUSTIN (KXAN) - When junk mail arrives in the mail, most either throw it in their recycle bin or toss it in the garbage, but one woman sees it as art.

"I was a bit bothered by the amount of paper that came into my home," said artist Annette Lawrence.

Instead of tossing it in the recycle bin, Lawrence decided to save every piece of it.

"It is a year's worth of junk mail torn into two inch wide strips and stacked and bound," said Lawrence. "It is intended to show how much junk mail comes into a one-person household in one year."

Each stack that hangs on the wall at the Flatbed Press on Martin Luther King Boulevard in East Austin represents one month’s worth of junk mail.

"The holiday months get the most paper, and then in May, for some reason, it drops off drastically," said Lawrence.

"You know, each mail carrier in the U.S. carries 18 tons of junk mail each person," said Randy Jewart, Austin Green Art director.

Austin Green Art is helping promote this exhibit, called Free Paper, as a way for the community to check out the Do Not Mail campaign on the Internet.

"There is a little tool you can use to sign up and reduce the amount of junk mail you are getting," said Jewart. "You can sign a petition."

Some who check out the exhibit may notice one month is missing.

"The month of December is missing, because it was bought by the Dallas Museum of Art," said Lawrence.

The public can buy some free paper, too.

"Each stake is $10,000, and it comes with a box that is custom-built," said Lawrence.

The goal is for the public to view junk mail in a whole new light.

"I hope they take away a sense of, 'Wow, that is a lot of paper,'" said Lawrence.

The Free Paper exhibit runs through Feb. 6 at the Flatbed Press, and admission is free.