The Pagemaster
Orange-based artist Keila Ploof loves to rescue books from her local recycling center. Those pages take on second lives when Ploof turns them into original artworks using paint and charcoal. In Ploof’s environmentally-friendly hands, each piece of paper is torn, cut, and manipulated to form a “brush stroke” that is applied using a paintbrush to create a 3-D quality. “I feel it’s an honer to give these books one more ride on the merry go round!” says Ploof, who often builds up four or more background layers before getting the color and texture just right. Each frame is hand-crafted by her husband, David. Her new exhibit in Amherst features about two dozen artworks.
Keila Ploof — Painting with Paper: Through April. Free. Amherst Town Hall, 4 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. keilascalling@gmail.com.
— Hunter Styles
