It’s a commonly accepted and often romanticized notion that artists look at the world a little differently. When confronted with the natural beauty of a coastal vista or the play of late afternoon sunlight across a humble façade, the artist consciously or subconsciously filters that scene through their personal aesthetic, simultaneously considering how to best translate said scene into their chosen medium and format. Less well-known (and certainly not romanticized) is the fact that artists also look at piles of discarded junk with a similarly discerning eye.
It was with this kind of seeing that “PLAY,” a barn-filling art installation by local artists Becky Evans and Lori Goodman, got its start. When Evans spied pallet-sized cardboard boxes marked free outside a local garden supply store back in 2022, her creative curiosity was piqued. The boxes were filled with mysteriously pristine shaved ribbons of blond wood.
“I immediately called Lori and asked her if she wanted it for her paper making,” Evans said. Goodman, an artist herself and Evans’ longtime friend, makes her own handmade paper and uses it to create ethereal sculptures and installations. Goodman told Evans she was interested in the material and within minutes two giant boxes were fork-lifted into Evans’ truck and on their way to Goodman’s Humboldt Hill studio.
“When we arrived with the boxes, Lori took one look and said, ‘It’s too much, take it back,’” Evans said with a laugh. The material .