Artist Turns Fast Food Trash into Delicate Paper Trees

I found this artist on FastCompany.com. Directly from their website:
"The brown paper bags that McDonald's hands out along with Happy Meals and fries are an unlikely art medium, but artist Yuken Teruya has managed to turn the grease-stained vessels into beautiful, delicate paper forests."

by Yuken Teruya

I love seeing used objects turned into art. I started and owned a consignment shop for 12 years, so the concept of second hand and used items was part of my blood. 

My cabin is constructed using standing dead trees off my land and old windows from mining shacks. Many of the inside doors come from old buildings. A couple of the indoor walls have beautiful old tin that looks like an art piece it its own right. Some of the lumber was salvaged from other buildings. I love the whole concept of reusing ... recreating... breathing a second life into something. 

by Yuken Teruya

More directly from FastCompany.com:
"In the Notice-Forest series, Teruya cuts one side of a paper bag in a tree shape. The cut-out tree is folded down so that it appears to be part of a diorama to onlookers who look inside the bag. According to Teruya, the diorama is meant to look like a real tree positioned against the shadows of other trees in a forest.  In other words, Teruya reclaims paper bags back into what they once were--trees."

I love the idea of bringing it back to where it started.... tree to paper and back to tree ....