Continued from Page 8
throughout the year.
This year, Aarts has themed her 100
days around creating miniature, intricate
collages of local natural scenes, including
spots like Cape Disappointment and the
Astoria coastline.
“It’s been a really fun project for me, I
actually really enjoy it,” she said.
For her collages, Aarts builds her
pieces mostly with recycled scraps of
paper left over from magazines and other
mediums. Aarts will also incorporate
handmade pieces she colors with water-
colors and colored pencils to fill in spaces
where she doesn’t have scrap paper that
works.
“I’m an artist, I always have scraps of
paper,” she said. “ I don’t throw anything
away.”
Over the years, Aarts said her style of
art has evolved and gone through differ-
ent iterations, ranging from watercolors to
collages.
Throughout the years, a focus on the
environment and love for the nature
around her is something that has stayed
consistent in Aarts’ work. She said she
loves exploring themes of the environment
in her work to share how beautiful and
impactful natural surroundings are.
Aarts’ love for incorporating the envi-
ronment into her pieces has really shined
through in the 100 Days Project, she said.
“I’ve always been someone drawn to
nature and to wildlife, I care very deeply
for it,” she said. “I’m a total naturalist at
heart.”
Growing up in Florida, Aarts was sur-
rounded by wetlands. Now living in Asto-
ria and being surrounded by the mountains Prints created by Aarts.
and ocean (and going whale watching now
and then), Aarts has found herself inspired retailers as well, all on one site so you
by the rolling landscapes of the Pacific
could shop all the local makers with one
Northwest.
shopping cart,” she said.
“I’m always inspired by all of it,” she
There was no shipping or delivery
said.
involved. Instead, customers picked up
As she has watched the impacts cli-
their orders curbside-style, Aarts said.
mate change and humans have had on
“One of the coolest things about the
the planet, Aarts said she wants to reiter-
event was that all of these artists I didn’t
ate through her pieces how important it is
know existed in Astoria found an easy
humans treasure natural resources.
way to put themselves out there,” Aarts
Aarts said she has loved participating
said.
in Astoria’s local arts community in the
Based on the success of the event, she
past few years. She feels that moving to
is thinking about bringing it back this year
Astoria and having such a supportive local but nothing is set in stone yet.
arts community has allowed Papernoten to
This summer, Papernoten can be found
flourish.
on weekends at the Astoria Sunday Mar-
ket where Aarts will have a booth most
Last year, she organized the Astoria
Sundays through the early fall.
Home for the Holidays event, a one-day
Aarts said once the 100 Days Project
online sale that brought together about 60
wraps up, she’s looking forward to focus-
local vendors’ work to sell online to the
ing even more on the environment in her
North Coast.
pieces and working on a collection of
“The idea was that it was all local. I
watercolor collages.
had local artists and small businesses,
Photos by hailey hoffman/The astorian
Thursday, May 27, 2021 // 9