About

Betsy Silverman’s photorealistic artworks are made entirely of recycled magazines. No paint, ink, or pencil is used.

Betsy began working with paper as a medium while studying architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design.  Inherently fragile in nature, paper could be torn or cut, folded or creased, layered and twisted, and ultimately transformed to represent a concept.  But she soon discovered that what was once used for representation of a three-dimensional idea had also become a vehicle for social change, because architects were developing ways to make paper structural and build with it.

She began experimenting with her own forms and developed a kit of paper construction elements for her thesis.  Folded and glued elements could be connected and, depending on their shape, made structural.

Her exploration of paper evolved into different projects. Paper’s tactile quality, its physicality, provide limitless opportunities for new creations.

Paper is also ubiquitous, readily accessible, and inexpensive. But, because of its accessibility and low cost, it is also often and easily discarded.  As such, Betsy is especially passionate about recycling and re-purposing paper when possible. Her collages incorporate recycled paper from magazines.  She loves the challenge of transforming preexisting text and pictures into a new representation that preserves bits and pieces of the original images — paper’s memory.

Her works embody fragments of the past, rendered as a moment in time through a photorealist lens.

She also welcomes donations of high end used magazines!

Betsy lives in the Boston area. She graduated from Cornell and earned a master’s degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.