Incorporating words, images and paper

Michael and Judy Jacobs get junk mail, just like the rest of us.

But they're not about to get off those lists.

They recycle that mail — and everybody else's.

From business envelopes to greeting cards, "those are treasures to us," said Michael Jacobs, a noted book maker, teacher and paper-arts expert, and his wife, Judy, authors of "Creative Correspondence" and other books.

"Judy and I are huge into use of pre-existing paper," he said. "We literally collect trash. We go to the post office every day it's open. At the end of each counter, there's a trash can. I start rummaging through the trash can; I find catalogs, magazines. I'll grab those; we'll go out for coffee and cull cool things, rip those pages out and recycle the remainder."

These paper artists will demonstrate their craft at "Art of the Written Word," the Arts Council of Snohomish County's Art Education in Action show that opens Thursday.

"Creative correspondence" encompasses paper projects meant to be sent through the mail but that take a different approach to stationery and envelopes.

For some years, the Jacobses were involved with mail art, corresponding monthly with about 150 people all over the world with handmade, creative mailings. "It consumed our life. Try to imagine writing 150 letters a month. It was insane," he said.

The Jacobses will be featured artists at the show's opening reception, and in keeping with the show's theme, "We'll have samples, and Judy and I will be demonstrating how to make things ... accordion folds, pop-ups, flip cards, and sending, in lieu of an envelope, a fold note [where letter and envelope are one]."

The nearly 30 artists in the show will display glass, ceramics, collage, calligraphy, folk art — much of it from nontraditional materials.

A Native American headdress is made from old paint tubes. A cream-colored dress by Berkely Parks is covered with printed words. Kathleen Dawe painted words from "The Wind in the Willows" onto a full-size door. Dona Anderson made seedpod sculptures out of patterned paper.

Barbara Barnes Allen created sculptural books. Caitlin Dundon paints boxes, plaques and other surfaces with quotes from the world's great writers. Susan Jane Russell offers her "Alphabet Series" of letters as well as new work.

Diane Kurzyna makes baby dolls out of bubble wrap and commercial plastic bags with certain words isolated to give an entirely new meaning — the Wonder Bread doll says "wonder," a restaurant takeout bag says "thank you," and, "I have this bag from JoAnn Fabrics that says 'dream more.' " she said.

Kurzyna also did four life-size bubble-wrap people holding letters spelling out the word "arts." Kurzyna wrapped live people in plastic wrap, taped them, then cut them out of the wrap and stuffed the shapes with bubble wrap, taping the figures back up.

(You can see them at www.rubyreusable.com.)

Besides the public, more than 2,200 Snohomish County schoolkids will go through the exhibit on field trips, watching artists at work and doing a project themselves. A show like this one was last presented six years ago.

In an age when we produce more paper waste than ever before, to the point where whole companies exist just to cart and shred paper, the Jacobses are realists — "we barely make a dent," he said — but still, "I'm 100 percent for it. To me, there's no reason to waste paper. Thank God, Seattle has mandatory recycling. We manage an apartment building, and it's up to us to make sure the tenants are acclimated to the new system."

Jacobs also taught creative ways to reuse paper at schools and shopping malls as an artist-in-action for the King County Solid Waste Division.

"King County's motto is reduce, reuse and recycle," Jacobs said. "First, reduce your use of expendable things; second, reuse it; then, after you've reused it, recycle it."

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com