Edgington has worked for the Little Rock Public Library since 1991, where she catalogs adult non-fiction and is frequently seen trolling Library book sales and dumpster diving in recycling bins for fodder for her colorful pieces of art. She explains, "I think of collage as recycling elevated to an art form." Edgington creates her large collages from fabric, found images and objects, paper and mixed media. She says, "I use discarded magazines, calendars, wrapping paper, fabric scraps and found objects, with decorative art papers as the icing on the cake. I combine these materials with acrylic, pastel, colored pencil and pen."

These colorful components of the discarded turned displayed combine to create images in which the norm becomes abnormal, the valued becomes devalued, and the real becomes unreal. For instance, in "The Lost Innocents (War Toy #2)," a group of bunnies dressed in turn of the century clothing proudly holds aloft a large bomb, caught either in collective mid-bound or while clinging to the flying warhead. Are they trying to stop the destruction or guide it on its way? The incongruity is jarring to the viewer. Equally as disorienting is "Intelligent Design," in which a seated toddler in a vintage mid-century home pulls down a table cloth, on which is resting the solar system, while a woman's hand reaches out in alarm from off canvas.

Edgington says, "Much of my work is stimulated by vivid dreaming and voracious reading. My themes range from the playful to the serious and sometimes combine both, reflecting both my sense of humor and my concern for our environment and for social justice." The humor is revealed in works such as "Armadillogeddon," in which a band of rampaging armadillos, some wearing protective gas masks, leap through piles of garbage and detritus that are the remains of a large city. Or wait, is that truly humorous or humorously true?

Edgington was born and raised in Little Rock. Aside from public school classes in charcoal drawing and watercolor, she is mostly self-taught in art. She graduated from Hendrix College in 1968 and did graduate study at Phillips University, Marburg an der Lahn, Germany, and at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Her work has been purchased by the Little Rock Public Library, the Museum of Discovery, and Heifer Project. She has twice won Best of Show at the international feminist science fiction convention in Madison, Wisconsin (Wiscon). "Gaudi's Cat" was accepted for the 50th annual Delta Exhibit at the Arkansas Arts Center. Amy is represented by Gallery 26 in Little Rock at http://www.gallery26.com. For sales or other inquiries, you may contact the artist at: amyedge46@hotmail.com. "Scissors, Paper, Cloth: Collages by Amy Edgington" will be on display in Mullins Library through the end of August.