"40 Hour Dollar," 6x11x5" (2015) by Karen Spiering

In 2015, we opened our studio to University of Illinois MFA Studio artist Karen Spiering, whose "life and work revolves around deep place knowing and the pursuit of stronger connections to the land/earth." After being trained on the equipment, she brought in old burlap bags to recycle into paper. We had never experimented with burlap as a material before, but allowed Karen to explore the material in our studio. The results were gorgeous. Karen made multiple "brown lunch bags" that were displayed both folded and stacked (on a pedestal) and opened and on the floor of the gallery.