Monthly Statement:
September 2005
Bag count:
Monthly total 363
223 black - 114 white - 26 color

When I began this accumulation I had a clear idea about how I wanted to process my bags. This was based on my naive expectation that most of the plastic bags that I would find would be white (on the west coast, where I am originally from, shopping bags are almost always white). I had planned on, somehow, shredding the bag material and then reducing it to small, confetti-sized particles which I call snow. This snow would be shown accumulating in a small installation over the course of the project year. I could go on an on about why I thought this was a pretty cool idea around proposal submission time. But as you can see from the monthly count, black bags far outnumber white and color bags. This necessitates a total reworking of my entire project minus the "I pick bags up from the street part".

Some notes on picking up bags from the street:
Bags can be dirty in many surprising ways. They can appear as if they were used for a millisecond to cover someone's innocuous paper-product purchase (all clean and fluffy like) only to be discarded right outside the store. But lo the wonders they may harbor inside! A short list of things I have found on or in bags, usually discovered at night while not wearing my glasses, includes: dog poo (varying consistencies), kitty litter, fresh urine, motor oil, rotting-death that my have once been food, and something that I swear was not vomit but a raw egg without the shell. Due to these discoveries I am amending my stated process to not pick up "every bag I see" but all those that do not present a significant threat to my health and psychic well-being. It should be noted that many bags do smell like stale urine once inside my home. These bags will not be discriminated against.
All accumulated bags undergo a rigorous cleaning process involving bleach, pine sol, and scalding hot water. (See images).

Process: I am accumulating all plastic shopping bags left on the street that I encounter each time I go outside. A record is being kept of how many bags are accumulated each day for the course of the project year. For each plastic bag I accumulate I will create one reusable canvas bag.