TALES AND SONGS
GUILD OF AMERICAN PAPERCUTTERS ANNUAL MEMBERS EXHIBIT

I began cutting designs out of paper during English class in high school. The teacher didn't appreciate it, but I had found my favorite artistic medium. I have since used the art of papercut to illuminate everything from music album covers to children's book illustration to ketubbot (Jewish Marriage contracts). What appeals to me about papercutting is both its ephemeral nature its and its humbleness. You can find a folk art tradition of cut paper in many cultures around the world, but the traditions did not come from the artists and artisans of the society but instead from the home. In my work, I like to embrace the traditional style and sensibilities of the folk artists and combine it with more a contemporary feel, and I hope more permanence as a work of art.

I am a nature artist and an environmentalist in Western New York, USA. I have carefully researched my subjects for my cut paper pieces and charcoal drawings.…in that process, I have discovered something more than just connecting with nature. Bringing that sense of wonder and understanding to people has really become my top priority.

Nursery Rhymes & Songs I

I'm a Swiss-born artists living in Florida. My works pay tribute to the beauty of nature and its complexity. 

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For each artwork, I use a single sheet of black paper and scissors to make complex cut images. The material and the production process reflect the delicacy and also fragility of nature. All things are interconnected and interwoven and have an impact on each other. My work discusses these interactions in nature: the internal flow of life.

I channel my creative urges to produce unique art work. My inspiration for my work is the miracle of life. My art is born out of a combination of self taught techniques, experience and workshops, which allows my perspective as an artist to remain traditional yet contemporary. Art is how I battle against the indifference of humans and offer new ways of viewing the world.

My approach in the studio–whether conscious or unconscious–builds through the unique experience of each work. I’m attracted to collections of the physical, graphic and enigmatic in juxtaposition. I love paper, textures, images and symbols–the poetry of coalescing elements, cut and reinvented, from one story to another.

My interest in papercutting originates from childhood summer holidays spent with my family in Poland. Papercuts, known as Wycinanki, influenced my first experiments and began a now life-long passion for paper-cutting. I start by hand cutting an original design and take it from there. The tools I use are simple: cutting mat, scissors, paperclips, and books to act as paperweights. I compose my images from sketches and photographs, further experimenting using digital design software.

C’mere Baby

Donna Cameron is an internationally exhibted and collected multimedia artist. Ms.Cameron's films and videos are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, NY (MoMA) and are distributed by the MoMA Circulating Film Library. They can be viewed at the MoMA Study Center by appointment, or at Donna Cameron's channel on YouTUBE. Cameron's photography and films use a unique cinematic paper emulsion process (CPE) for which she was issued a U.S. Patent in 2001. Her moving image work is also distributed by Canyon Cinema, CA, Film-makers’ Coop, NY and Light Cone, Paris, FR.

We live in a culture that has lost our deep connection with our home: the wilderness, the Earth. In my art, I visually explore the relationships between the people of our culture and the natural world. This in itself is a paradox, because humans are not separate from nature, but a part of nature. My work reflects a positive message of hope for a symbiotic interdependence between humans and our organic surroundings.

One reason I embrace paper cutting is that although the material may seem unforgiving, what appears as a false cut may be guiding me in a better direction. I like that interplay between control and serendipity. Even if I layout a design digitally, I don’t do it in great detail. To improvise with what is developing keeps the process alive and exciting. For the same reason I like to work in collaboration with others. I never know where others will lead the conversation or how it will affect the finished piece.
 

Being a conduit is my purpose as an artist. To create something that wants to materialize is a powerful act. And once created, it has its own power to interact with those that view it.

I long have been fascinated by and explored the world of night dreams–my own and those of family and friends. Dreams, like poetry, myth and fairy tales, speak to us in the language of image, symbol, archetype, and metaphor,and often come as nonlinear narratives to puzzle, mystify, and challenge. The practice of transposing dream narratives into artforms–while leaning into their metaphoric language, creative imagery, and archetypal symbols–can be affective, clarifying, and instructive ;or, perhaps, even more powerfully, can help dreamers creatively just be with and/or be open to the nonlinear, irrational, mysterious, and magical. For many years, a fascinating theme has recurred in my dreams that involves encounters with wild animals while walking on a forest path. Inspired by the silhouette illustrations from fairy tale books of my childhood, I have adopted the medium of paper-cutting as a way to bring my dreams to form. As a way to illustrate the dream-story and to dialogue with its metaphors and archetypes,

I love telling stories through papercutting. When cutting, I start with ideas – story, character, image, or pattern – that form the basis of the piece. I collect inspiration and reference images and text, and do exploratory sketches from them. I also do test cuts to see how certain parts will look in paper, and decide what paper to use. Once I have a good idea of composition and details, I draw the design on the back of the final paper. I then use a knife to cut out the piece.

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This piece is inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, "The Travelling Companion". The tale features a powerful and evil swan princess who has a garden filled with the skeletons of her rejected suitors. I've been fascinated by this story since reading it as a child, and have always wanted to try illustrating it.

Award winning artist, Melinda Fabian creates realistic, yet whimsical artwork that brightens each viewer's day. Melinda's signature art features paper sculpture designs, which combine watercolor and gouache illustrations and three-dimensional hand-sculpted paper elements into one-of-a-kind art pieces. These new designs literally jump off the page, causing viewers to do a double take upon realizing they're not just flat paintings. Each piece is made entirely out of paper, from the little ants marching across the stem of a flower to the sand on the beach. Every detail in the painting is given careful attention. With a dash of humor to touch the hearts of those who experience her work, Melinda seamlessly blends paper and paint to bring her artwork to life. Melinda has more than 30 years of experience as a freelance illustrator for magazines and publishing companies, created an award-winning line of Can You Find? hidden object greeting cards, games and jigsaw puzzles. Melinda is a member of MPSGS and SCBWI and holds a B.F.A. in Communication Design from Kutztown University.

Jennifer Hudson is an award winning Maryland based cut paper artist and acrylic ink painter. She began her career as a watercolor painter with an emphasis on realistic nature scenes and fantasy based illustrations. Hudson's love of the natural world is evident in the use of flora and animals in her work. She graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts in 2014 with a concentration in painting. After graduating, she continued to paint but became intrigued by the world of contemporary paper art. Hudson wished to explore a medium that was more sculptural, and textile based. She uses an X-acto knife to hand cut delicate works that display movement, texture, and dimension. She specializes in animal and wildlife art. Continuing motifs are foxes, ravens, horses, and delicate lace-like structures.

I used a printed grayscale photo of a spotted owl, laid over a piece of black paper to make a prototype, carefully cutting out the lightest areas of the owl and the branch on which it rested. I added the text above and below the owl and cut this final piece.

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Music provides solace for a troubled mind, and for many years the music of Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes) has done so for me. This piece was inspired by his song Milk Thistle. After cutting the image of a spotted owl, I added lyrics in my own handwriting. Forging a connection between music I've appreciated for years and my own art made this very meaningful in both proccess and product.

Space Oddity, Bowie #1

I am drawn to cut paper because of its graphic impact, tactile quality, and ability to tell a story with elegant economy. In my work, this traditional craft medium contrasts with an exploration of how technology infuses nature and our interactions with the natural world. Each relates to the theme "Understory" by breaking down the word into its components: They tell stories that take place under water, under branches, or under the cover of night.

Since the 60s of the 20th centuries, "Ussuri Boat Song" has been a well-known song in China. In 1980, it was selected by UNESCO as an international music textbook (Asia-Pacific). The song style, cheerful and beautiful, is a representative folk song that reflects the beautiful life of the Hezhen people. It is based on the the Hezhen folk song "Marry Lingkuo" tune, and the prologue and ending are adapted from the Hezhen rap music "Imakan". In 2011, Imakan was also declared a World Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, and they have become a spiritual treasure shared by all mankind.

Songs of Kaua‘i represents my love of the flora and fauna of Kaua‘i with layered papercuts in a carousel or star-tunnel book structure. Individual pages highlight Reef Fish, Breadfruit, Bird of Paradise, Ti Leaves, Makana and Hanalei Bay, and Crown Flower (tropical milkweed).

Songs of Kaua‘i represents my love of the flora and fauna of Kaua‘i with layered papercuts in a carousel or star-tunnel book structure. Individual pages highlight Reef Fish, Breadfruit, Bird of Paradise, Ti Leaves, Makana and Hanalei Bay, and Crown Flower (tropical milkweed).

I have always loved art, and I have always loved to read.  Books pull you into a new world, while art lets you see it.  It made sense to me that these two mediums should come together.  The books that we love to read should be made to come to life.  Characters, that we care so much for, should come out of the pages to show us their stories.  What we see in our imaginations as we read should be there for the world to see.  My book sculptures are my way of making stories come alive.  

The Pied Piper

The ancient Maya thought that at night the sun, as it slips into the underworld, would transform into a jaguar. A powerful predator, the animal was also associated with warriors and hunters, and became a symbol of the might and authority of the rulers.

Julie Walton Radke moved to Panama City shortly before Hurricane Michael. Her unique style of paper-cutting, often featuring flowers, hearts, and insects, sets her apart from other paper artists, and even won a Merit Award at the 56th Bay Annual Competition a few months ago.

Hand-cut paper combined with acrylic paints and inks to create layered, expressive images. Inspiration found in nature, literature, and the arts.

Materials used include painted and relief-printed papers, magazines papers – and 1 postage stamp! Cut with craft knife. Background painted, printed, and drawn with acrylic paints and colored pencils.

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Yes, that is a pine tree! As pine trees will grow on a traditionally woven American coverlet. Well, okay, I added windows. And a ladder. The three Spirits of Weaving need that ladder after three long days of sorting threads in the crazy winds above the hill. Thank goodness the blackbirds help.

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...I think it's the blackbirds who can tell you the whole story.