From the Past:
Have you ever looked at some of the silhouettes and paper cut-outs by Hans Christian Anderson? He always carried a pair of scissors in his pocket, and if he met a child of a certain age, he would pull out his scissors, and while telling a fairy tale, he would begin to cut out an elaborate cut-paper image. The image illustrated the story! Since he always wanted to to be an actor, all of this was dramatized, the story ending with the final paper-cut!! While living in Cambridge, England for a year, I began a series of cut-paper creations for my daughter, who was five and a half years-old at the time. Every so often, I would draw and colour an image that had been folded and cut, and then leave it at night as a surprise on the floor in front of her bedroom door. In the morning, what fun! This activity got me thinking about how important paper templates have been in my struggle to find my own art niche. Looking back at a series of ribbon paintings, completed in the 1970's - '80's, I realized that they were a result of the manipulation of three different templates which I had drawn and cut out for use on large scale (8' x 5') canvases. Looking farther back, I discovered that repeat patterns used in my fabric design class at SAIC, were the initial source of the way I approach my art practice today.
Examples of the folded paper and cut series (6 1/2" x 14"), and the painted ribbon series (5' x 8') are shown here.
Have you ever looked at some of the silhouettes and paper cut-outs by Hans Christian Anderson? He always carried a pair of scissors in his pocket, and if he met a child of a certain age, he would pull out his scissors, and while telling a fairy tale, he would begin to cut out an elaborate cut-paper image. The image illustrated the story! Since he always wanted to to be an actor, all of this was dramatized, the story ending with the final paper-cut!! While living in Cambridge, England for a year, I began a series of cut-paper creations for my daughter, who was five and a half years-old at the time. Every so often, I would draw and colour an image that had been folded and cut, and then leave it at night as a surprise on the floor in front of her bedroom door. In the morning, what fun! This activity got me thinking about how important paper templates have been in my struggle to find my own art niche. Looking back at a series of ribbon paintings, completed in the 1970's - '80's, I realized that they were a result of the manipulation of three different templates which I had drawn and cut out for use on large scale (8' x 5') canvases. Looking farther back, I discovered that repeat patterns used in my fabric design class at SAIC, were the initial source of the way I approach my art practice today.
Examples of the folded paper and cut series (6 1/2" x 14"), and the painted ribbon series (5' x 8') are shown here.
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