I recently discovered Dawn Gettig’s tea bag art and got quite inspired, so I asked Dawn to tell me more about her art.
Mira Tudor: Hi Dawn, I came across your tea bag art at http://dawngettig.com today and really enjoyed your use of this medium—its wear made me think of some of the softer creases and stains of life. Then I read your own words about the serenity you need in your life, and realized that sometimes we achieve serenity not against a blank canvas, but, on the contrary, by falling softly into those creases and stains of our life. So I’d like to ask you to tell me more of what you see in the used tea bags you use as your canvas.
Dawn Gettig: I see images, faces, or patterns that inspire the finished art. Often, I simply use my intuition and follow it as it tells me what the empty tea bag wants to become. Sometimes I see a woman’s face or a woodland bird or other creature. Other times I paint an abstract image. Often it is the color of the stained tea bag that inspires the subject matter and other times it is the shape of the stain. I use different types of tea bags . . . herbal tea, green tea, black tea. I love the variety of the different colors, shapes, and sizes of the tea bags. Mostly, I just love the organic feeling and color of the tea bag.
MT: Your paintings of birds and animals come alive against the backdrop of the tea bag as they would against a landscape. What media do you work with to create them, and have you tried before media that didn’t work with the tea bags?
DG: I am a mixed media artist so I use all types of media with the tea bags. Mostly watercolor and/or acrylic paint but will add in graphite, paint pens, pastels, inks, and more. Thick oil pastels don’t work as well on the tea bag substrate because it is so small.
MT: Have you worked with unconventional canvases before?
DG: Yes, I have tried many different substrates. Handmade paper, fabric, leaves, tree bark, stones. But I am especially drawn to tea bags as an unconventional canvas.
MT: What will come after the tea bags?
DG: Well, I am always working on many different art projects and learn many different techniques from other art teachers along my lifelong journey as an artist. I enjoy a wide variety of painting styles and subject matter. I love painting abstracts on large canvases because the story is different for each person viewing the art piece. I really have been enjoying the muted fresco look of painting on joint compound and hope to find the time to create more fresco-type art.
MT: Anything else you’d like to add?
DG: Thank you for the interview, Mira! Please visit me on Facebook Dawn Gettig Facebook and on my website at Dawn Gettig
MT: Thank you, Dawn, for granting me this interview!
The Art Dive 
It’s the first time I hear about tea bag art, and I must say I like the idea a lot, especially the bookmark one (Jackrabbit). Peppermint tea with a twist 🙂
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Hi Georgiana, thank you so much for your comment (four years later!). I somehow missed some comments when they were posted, probably because I haven’t checked the blog as often as I should have. Will be more constant at it in the future 🙂
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Mira Tudor, Thank you for the interview and links. Roadkill is lamentable since animal ancestors were there first and they’re just going out for a bite to eat, a stroll or a walk-back home. So I particularly love the fawn.
Does Gettig’s art with possibly lingeringly scented tea bags make you think of your write-up on Tolaas and Central Park?
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Hi Derdriu! I somehow don’t associate these tea bags with their lingering smells. Any surface has its own smells. The fawn is beautiful, and the way it sits in that contained space within the surface of the tea bag almost looks like it’s hiding.
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