Monica Llerena is an accomplished senior who spends her time between AP classes, extracurricular activities, and art. Part of her artistic process is making books and binders as a way to be more sustainable while being more connected with her work.

     Llerena was taught to make these sketchbooks by her middle school art teacher, Mr. Ramon Lopez. He believed in the importance of having everything in your sketchbook, including the book, created by you. Typically, assembling one sketchbook takes 1-2 complete days of arranging. The next year, she was assigned to make one more book. Once she realized her talent for this, she made four.

     In junior year, Llerena took AP environmental science which showed her the dangers of waste and gave her a motivation to reduce our footprint. This led to her noticing the waste that art students can unknowingly contribute to. Many essential art supplies are plastic, there are great amounts of water constantly thrown out for paint, clay, paper mache, etc.  So, she discovered a solution for this problem. In unused bundles of scraps and papers, Monica saw as an opportunity to bind it all together to conserve and create.

     The inspiration for her art stems from anything that comes to mind. Llerena’s art is also comprised of scraps and unused items like sporks, iPhone cases, and gum wrappers. You can use anything to make the book covers; Llerena used cut up cardboard boxes or layered manilla folders. You can also use any paper for the inside, Llerena recommends Bristol paper if you’d like a higher quality paper. 

     She hopes for this mindset to be carried on with others and that others could also participate in the goal of uplifting the environment. If you’re interested in commissioning Llerena for a sketchbook or binder, contact her on instagram, @luvvmon.