[Recycled paper made from old medical bills, bristly lady’s thumb with dried pink petals embedded on the surface]
[Recycled paper, torn at the edges made from mostly plants, dried yellow petals embedded on the surface]
[A standing sheet of recycled paper, torn at the edge with a tiny blue dayflower pasted on top.]
[Paper made from weeds]
[a photo of a journal that Maria made with recycled paper and lavender. It sits on a wooden table that her partner Calvin made.]
[A photo of the back of Maria’s journal. It shows a piece of the textured paper with lavender, and flowers on the back cover.]
[A photo of recycled paper drying on a on a piece of string over a large monstera plant.]
[A photo of recycled term papers and dried flowers. The texture is soft and forgiving.]
[A photo of a dancing girl drawn in charcoal on a recycled piece of paper with a large sunflower embedded in the top.]
[A photo of Maria in blue overalls pressing a sheet of wet pulp.]
[a photo of a hand squeezing wet pulp.]
[a photo of hands excitedly playing in bowls of pulp.]
[a photo of a hand swimming in a vat of yellow pulp.]
[a photo of hands dipping molds into pulp.]
[a photo of hands over a bucket of colored paper and water. The hands are covered in color.]
[a photo of a paintbrush painting blue on top of mushy pulp.]
[a photo of a hand pressing wet pulp into a flower-shaped cookie cutter.]
[a photo of hands at work in front of bowls of dried pulp, paint, markers, wet pulp, and other materials.]
[a photo of hands with silver nail polish pressing paper pulp into a mold. With one finger, they press pulp, with the other, they hold Elmer’s glue. The mold is covered with embroidery thread, fibers, and many colors.]
[a photo of squishy pulp with color on top and fibers squished into it.]
[This is an enmeshment of old plaster and new paper that Maria and Alana Guarino call “skinsuit.” They used the plaster to cast their body parts in various ways, and now the leftover is embedded in this paper pulp to create a rough, interesting surface.]
[This is an abstract art piece called “Seizure” by Maria Susan Guarino. It is an embodied painting of a seizure, swirling in paper in red and white.]
[This is an abstract art piece called “Dimension Hop” . It is a painting in paper pulp of another galaxy- there are three perfect pulpy circles, one is a deep orange/red with a stripe of black, one is a dark blue/black, and one is a lovely lavender that makes her skin tingle. The lavender is covered with a layer of abaca paper to give it extra texture. ]
[This is a photo of hands pressing pulp under a delicate linen napkin.]
[This is a photo of a pulp structure. It contains watercolor, fibers, embroidery thread, oil pastel, and more.]
[a photo of an arm reaching into a bowl of dried pulp babies.]
[a photo of one of Maria’s books, made of brown Kraft paper and white recycled paper that she made and assembled.]
[This is called “Dancing Girl” by Maria Susan Guarino. It is a gesture drawing of a girl dancing swirling in paper in blue and lavender.]
[A photo of an ongoing collaborative pulp scultpture. It continues to build up, change, and come down, depending on who interacts with it and how.]

Two years ago, I (Maria) attended a talk with the artist and scholar Krista Franklin. She read out loud one of her poems, which contained the line: “My body is pulp.” During the question and answer session, someone asked her to explain this, and she said that she is a paper maker, telling us about the process of making paper and how it had affected her. I felt completely convinced, and immediately went home and made pulp out of junk mail and some garden flowers that I had been drying in my studio apartment. It did something very important for my body. Ever since, I have been playing with pulp, learning about it, and learning myself.