Local artist Nick Georgiou loves newsprint and uses it in his art to create amazing sculptures and framed pictures. On May 16, 2009 (exactly 3 years ago) when our Tucson Citizen newspaper ceased publication, Nick ran out & bought the paper and quickly created a dog sculpture out of it. I only found out about this creation last Fall at Nick’s one man show at the Temple of Music and Art (click here). I knew Nick had created a dog sculpture but I didn’t know it was made from our Citizen newsprint on that very last day of publication.

So I kindly asked Nick to send me photos he took of the May 16, 2009 newsstand with his dog friend, appropriately named “Citizen Z” (who is not for sale).

"Our Epitaph" and dog sculpture

Georgiou’s website: http://myhumancomputer.blogspot.com/. His studio is upstairs at the Citizens Art Studios at 44 W. 6th Street (BICAS building). See more photos of this dog sculpture at his website.

Nick also had a booth recently at the Tucson Festival of Books, as he uses discarded books in his creative art as well.

R.I.P. Tucson Citizen newspaper

human sculpture by Nick Georgiou (from his website)

A Visit to Nick Georgiou at his studio at 44 W. 6th Street (upstairs)
is a unique, unusual, and memorable event. His studio is absolutely filled with newsprint, not in piles, but in sculptures that he meticulously hand stitches. He moved here from New York City (where else?) about 2 years ago.

As Nick says of himself: “His sculptures breathe new life into discarded books and newspapers found on the streets and comments upon the regeneration of the printed word in contemporary society.”

To see more fantastic images by Georgiou, go to his website: www.myhumancomputer.com, or email him at myhumancomputer@yahoo.com.

More in his own words:
“It isn’t hard to see that the printed word is already shaping up to be an artifact of the 21st century. Our way of interacting with text is changing. We’re losing something tangible. Georgiou’s art reflects this transformation being driven by the immediacy of media, and our addiction to the 24-hour news cycle.” Well said, Nick, for us, a 24 hour online news source and no longer a print newspaper, the Tucson Citizen.

We just saw one of his amazing pieces at the BICAS art auction last night, which was being bid on for hundreds of dollars. Here’s one below of a dog sculpture on Congress Street downtown.

Thank you Nick for recycling newsprint, as after all your art is indeed “born from news.”