Creative Canvas

Libraries are a great place to find lots of different books, but what happens when a library runs out of space? It's the librarian's job to make room for any new books they receive. Librarians pick out any older books that are in bad condition or haven't been read in a while, and they donate, recycle, or throw them away. Artist Mike Stilkey realized there were a lot of books going into the trash, and decided to work with his local libraries to reuse those books for his art!

Mike never liked to paint on regular, white canvases. Instead, he would buy old books and paint on their pages. After a while, he tried painting on book covers. He discovered that he could paint a whole picture on the spines of books by stacking them in creative ways! He doesn't glue his book structures together, so anyone could still pick up one of the painted books and read it! He recently designed a Christmas themed art installation in South Korea, made up of 14,000 books piled 30 feet high!

What objects could you recycle for an art project? Show us your ideas in the design section!