While in undergraduate school, I worked with a professor who was an expert in paper conservation and museum practices. From her, I learned that paper is one of the strongest, long-lived, flexible, and most beautiful mediums with which to do art. Because of this training, I was able to work for a museum as a paper conservator while I was still in college.

Once I graduated from college, I returned to pottery making, my first artistic love. I continued taking pottery classes, and ultimately, I began teaching pottery making at the Arts and Science Center in Nashua, NH. Pottery became very important to me and paper became a side interest.

In 1986 I was hired as the art teacher for Clearway Alternative High School in Nashua, NH. After 20 years in that position, I retired at the end of the 2005/2006 school year. During the 20 years I worked at Clearway, I learned again how wonderful creating art with paper can be.

Most of my students would come in my door telling me they, ”hated art”. Faced with this challenge, I was inspired to create projects for these students that would make them love art. Very quickly I learned that teenagers like to explore who they are. With this in mind, I would have my students create a, “Visual Autobiography” at the very beginning of the year. This “autobiography” was actually a mixed media collage that had to include handmade papers, 3-d objects, found objects, photographs, 2 magazine cut-outs, and their name.

When the student finished their project, there was a visual description of this young person for everyone to see. They had chosen the elements themselves and so they truly had created an autobiography. Virtually every student enjoyed this project and the results were wonderful. At the end of the project, the students understood more about art and its purposes. They no longer, “hated art”. Once the students understood how to create mixed media collages, they were allowed to use collage in solving the problems and projects presented to them in class.

While planning the collage projects for my students, I once again became inspired by the many qualities of paper. Through this re-involvement with paper, I am again working with papers that have come from all over the world. To further my artistic options, I went back to school to learn how to use digital imaging software. In many of my pieces, I combine digital images and exotic papers.

My undergraduate experience and 20+ years of teaching have taught me that mixed media collage is a remarkably inviting and engaging art form. Any materials will do. Knowing this can be wildly empowering and permits my imagination to stretch as far as it wants to go.



New Hampshire Exhibitions

Sharon Arts Center, Peterborough, NH
Gallery One, Nashua, NH
East Colony Gallery, Manchester, NH
Portfolio, Amherst, NH
Amherst Library, Amherst, NH
Art Walk, Nashua, NH
Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter Auction
Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter “Empty Bowls”
Home Health and Hospice Care Fashion Show

Upcoming shows

“Enchanted April”, Court Street Theater, Nashua, NH


Bonnie Guercio
66 Meadow Drive
Hollis, NH 03049
603.465.2769
bonnieguercio@yahoo.com