For this exhibit last year I made 4 papercuts displayed in oval frames.
Below are images from this series titled "Reclamation". Each frame is 8x 10 inches. Click on images for larger photos.
The group displayed at "Connect with a Cause", a showing and sale of art from Connect 12 artists to benefit various local community organizations:
These papercuts now live on a wall in my mother's home. She liked them so much I wanted to give them to her. Here they are in her dining room:
Here are some images to give a little information about this series in the form of a statement, some purposes for female body modifications and some examples of female modifications. Click for larger images.
Well I made my first attempt at a large papercut last week. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I definitely need to do more and figure out my style of papercutting.
The papercut is about 20x30 inches. I did not document the whole process like I should have. There are many ways to create papercuts and I'm sure my process will change and develop as I do more. I have actually used a couple methods already. For 'belonging' I used a simple drawing on a large sheet which was taped on top of the black paper. So, this method requires cutting through 2 layers of paper. My favorite method so far is to use a lightbox, but that requires the use of a light colored paper. I'm not crazy about using black paper and 2 layers of paper because it forces me to use more pressure when cutting and that can be painful to the arms. Lots of stretching and breaks!
Tools - I have only been using a craft knife to cut with. I found a nice comfy one made by Fiskars - LINK I also sometimes use this other unique Fiskars knife. It's a little more difficult to get used to. I like using a craft knife because it is more like drawing to me. I'm not too fond of scissors. They're awkward.
Photos!
The finished papercut: side view: what was left of the black sheet of paper:
Video! So I just got a Flip Mino (fun little thing!) and this is my first edited video. I didn't have any grand intentions when I filmed this. I just grabbed the Flip and started to record before I removed the outer border. I set it on the table, not even knowing what that would look like. Not too bad, but not very exciting either. I'll put more effort into making process vids in the future. I think the best part of seeing this video is to get an idea of the scale and fragility of the paper.
The actual time for this video was 7 minutes. In the editing, it was sped up, turned to black and white and music added. That's all. I'm curious to see the quality when uploaded on blogger.
Also, I'm just removing the border that has already been cut, making final cuts where the paper is still intact in the corners and such. I had already been working on this papercut for a few hours at this point. And it is not done at this point either. There were some changes made and details to cut after this.
Subject. As a continuation of body modification subjects, I have been thinking a lot about the why's of body modification. A sense of belonging is a big one. It confirms one's identity and helps people to find meaning and direction in their lives. I'm also fascinated by the differences in the way humans think about modifications, especially the typically tribal practices that I love to focus on. To modern societies it is quite often seen as barbaric and uncivilized, while tribal cultures see it as a step above, an improvement and indication of their human-ness. This separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. What I love about using papercutting to explore these ideas is the actual use of cutting, much like cutting into the skin of the body, a barrier that we are breaking through.
Visuals. I've been fascinated with Victorian styled silhouettes and mixing this imagery with the tribal look for the ultimate contrast. That is a brief explanation of where the style of my papercuts are coming from. Perhaps more on that later.
Here is a photo with sugared cranberries and instructions for making your own gift tags! Enjoy!
Instructions: 1. Download the pdf file 2. Gather some thick paper like a plain white card stock 3. Print 4. Cut the tags 5. Punch a hole in the top or corner 6. Insert string, ribbon, raffia of your choice and tie to gift
Other options: 1. Use a corner craft punch 2. Add stamp pad ink to the edges (as shown) 3. Add glitter or other embellishments
For this show I'm submitting something from a new series I'm currently working on. The series is for a solo show in January in Clarksville. More on that later. The images are digital drawings but I'll be doing some kind of transfer process for display. The show in Clarksville is titled - 'til death - Here is a little preview of the series:
There is just something about fall food. I love warm comfort food.
I made some butternut squash soup recently. It turned out pretty good. Not quite as good as Wolfgang Puck's version, which is what I was aiming for.
I got the recipe from allrecipes.com This is my favorite recipe site. You can add things to your recipe box, organize recipes, create shopping lists, adjust serving sizes and more.
so here are some pics of my soup. When preparing butternut squash, cut it in half and roast it in the oven first, cut side down. Then you can just slice it up and scoop it away from the skin. It's actually quite tasty just like this with salt & pepper. (this was before blending it and adding cream)
wow. how does this happen? here are some pics during a studio clean-up. it's a mess. very overwhelming. i have too much crap. it's much better now and i will post after pics later. the spilled beads actually happened after the cleaning. the beads WERE neatly organized by color. sigh.....
Below is a photo of my tomato art piece for this year's tomato art fest in East Nashville. I've also documented the process, which is shown in a video below.
water & seeds - symbols of fertility Tomato is a fruit. The tomato fruit's seeds symbolize a women's fertility, which is why it is placed over her womb area in the painting.
