She goes around with a big black bag, asking businesses for bubble wrap.

This strange habit has actually gained her Web site design services, though at times it also gains her odd looks.

Diane Kurzyna doesn’t use this bubble wrap for her own shipping. She uses the addictive-to-pop plastic to stuff “babies” made out of items others summarily dismiss and throw away.

Kurzyna, aka “Ruby Reusable” is an artist whose main medium is trash. Her studio above The Painted Plate shows a taste of what she does: there are miniature dolls made out of candy wrappers that her kids left behind, as well as larger dolls made out of plastic bottles and other found (and generally tossed) items. One of these dolls carries a bouquet of Red Rose tea bag tabs and bread wrap fasteners. Another holds a plastic comb guitar.

But the more intriguing babies are made with the aforementioned bubble wrap and trash bags.

Some of these babies are multicultural; some have words that might strike a feeling. “Wonder,” “EGO” (from a LEGO brand bag), “Dream More,” “Create More” and “Thank you” show on the babies’ bellies. “I’m fascinated by the bags with words,” admits Kurzyna.

With her background in fiber arts, Kurzyna began her work as an artist weaving. She shows one project she did at the University of Washington, a basket woven with telephone wire and a string of Christmas lights.

Eventually, her work evolved, but she always carried the core message “leave no plastic
behind.”

While Kurzyna’s work has been given high profile treatment in Olympia, during her “Here Today” temporary exhibitions, as well as with placement of some of her figures, spelling out “ARTS” at the Capitol Building and on Arts Day, she remains somewhat underrepresented as an artist, with galleries seeming hesitant to show her work.

Even in the Envirohouse at the Tacoma Transfer Station, where her art was shown, there was trepidation about showing her babies. “I heard they creeped someone out,” she admits. To her, the babies make a statement about life, playfulness, along with a message about concern for the next generation.

But the message seems to go largely silent.

“I’d starve if I did this full time,” she says.

To feed herself, she teaches in different schools. “I’m on the roster of teaching artists for Washington State and Pierce County.”

Her lessons in art also incorporate lessons in the three Rs — reduce, reuse, and recycle.
And as an artist, having a Web identity helped in part by her Web site, www.rubyreusable.com, as well as her blog, Olympia Dumpster Divers (Make art not waste!) is leading to involvement in more shows, like “Leave No Plastic Behind,” a show to happen in Portland, as well as one in the South Seattle Community College, “The Art of the Word.”

Additionally, her studio will be open for Olympia’s Arts Walk in October, while her art can be viewed in the EnviroHouse through Sept. 21.

[EnviroHouse, 3510 S. Mullen, Tacoma]