One Artist's Old Blotting Tissues Become Accidental Masterpieces

Above are two blotting tissues. Specifically, they're Australian artist Del Kathryn Barton's blotting tissues. She used the white, pillowy papers to dab excess water and paint between brush strokes, unintentionally making figurative portraits along the way.

At the time, Tim Moore was Barton's assistant, and he was moved by the accidental beauty of the dampened tissue scraps. Touched with streaks of green, puddles of pinks, sprinkles of blue, the disposable material became, in Moore's eyes, an unexpected artwork in itself.

Thus, the book "Not My Blotting Tissues" was born. Dubbed a "sensitive collection of incidental expression," it features stark portraits of Barton's blotting tissues laid flat on the page, elevated from pieces of trash to humble gems of abstraction. The conceptual project privileges the subconscious acts of creation, those gestures and marks that occur almost without thought, and can, in many instances, create something utterly striking.

For a similar project, check out Tim Gardner's "Paper Towel Works." Moore's book is available through Formist. As the press release makes explicit, it's "not to be sneezed at."

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