Rolled paper art

To the layman, marking art seems to be a spontaneous process, a burst of creativity that is transferred from the artist's mind onto the paper, canvas, clay or fabric. I remember the moment when I realized how thought-out art has to be in order to be successful. I was taking my first 100-level college art course, and was exasperated at the planning stages that the professor was describing we had to complete before we could even begin the project. It is against my nature to be a planner (which is probably why I love making handmade paper so much: very little planning and measuring involved!). So when I come across a piece of art where you can see the patience and planning that went into it — but yet it is so whimsical and simple — I am inspired to slow down. This process has never hit me as fully as when I have looked at the art of Laurie Brown. The genius of her art is that it looks so entirely effortless. But when one examines the details of this artwork, you can see how she had to roll a piece of paper not only in order to capture a color but also to capture the line with a curve in it so that the line would fall in the right place to complete the curve of (in this case) the elephant's back. As a self-proclaimed rolled paper artist, this work blows my mind. Go to her Etsy shop, zoom into the photo and really check it out. Truly remarkable work. I hope she sells a lot of it and keeps making many inspiring pieces.


https://www.etsy.com/listing/193726065

Buy handmade!

Garden Variety

I find it fascinating to look over years of my work and see the path where my various artistic endeavors and choices have led me. Of course, it all started with handmade paper. I was happily making paper by hand for a number of years and enjoying that process fully. Gradually, I started branching in new directions as I mastered various aspects of papermaking. I started to add “inclusions” to my handmade paper to give it texture and interest. “Inclusions” is a fancy word for “all kinds of odds and ends laying around my studio that I can’t throw away.” It began with bits of threads, and old herbs and spices that had lost their punch, then I branched into adding hops (as in the foundation of beer) and patchouli leaves. I once got my hands on a bunch of shredded money discarded from the US Treasury - loved that experiment! I added all these interesting textures, colors and smells to my handmade paper and never tired of how they changed the paper. (And during another branch of experimentation, I add wildflower seeds, which led to my plantable papers.)

Eventually, I found some potpourri that excited me, and in it went into the vat of paper pulp. Those bits of dried flowers pressed into the completed sheets of paper intrigued me enough to start pressing my own flowers and adding them. Somewhere along the way, I had some flowers that were too pretty to crunch up and add to the slurry of pulp so I glued them on top of the paper. Just a few simple experiments and curiousities and I had a new line of cards. They were an instant success. I spent several years exclusively making them, called Garden Variety, and sold thousands of them. Here are examples of them:

I still adore those cards, although I haven’t made them in a long time. But they were a precursor to my Petal People (see posts below). Whenever I find a successful art form, I always wonder if that will be it. Will a new idea ever come again? But there always seems to be something more, quietly sleeping just beneath the surface. I wonder what the next thing will be...

The elusive fly

I don't know why I make art. I don't have a political agenda or important world view that I need to state. I don't do it to because I have a quota that I have to reach on a production line. I don't even do it for the praise I get, although I do love the compliments! I just need to do it. I need to create. As a matter of fact, the very reason that I began selling my artwork was to make money to buy more supplies, and to get some of it cleaned out when it was started to take up too much room in my life. SO I guess I just create for the satisfaction of it. Today was one of those really satisfying days, though I almost feel silly being so excited over something I made. (I feel akin to a proud kindergartener showing her scribblings to her parents!)

Regardless, today I created something that really tickled me. I found a really interesting pressed flower in the stash I got from a stranger (see the post below for more info about that). It looked exactly like a house fly to me. So I created a Petal Person holding a fly swatter, with the fly buzzing behind her where she can't see it, her swatter aloft and ready to attack. I like it because it is a moment in life that everyone can identify with - trying to hunt down an elusive insect - but expressed with all the delicate beauty of pressed flowers and leaves. I hope it makes you smile.

A gift from a stranger

I received an amazing gift from a stranger this week. A woman named Debbie was helping her parents clean out the many years of accumulated items that everyone has piled up in closets and cupboards. During her cleaning, she found phone books full of pressed flowers and leaves. Among the pressed flowers were some of my Petal People cards that her mother had purchased from me. Debbie emailed me to see if I might like "some pressed flowers" since it seemed a shame to throw them away. I happily accepted since it was such a kind offer and she was local. Truthfully, I thought I would do something nice for a stranger by taking them, and I would meet her mother and say thanks for being a customer (turns out she had bought many of my cards over the years). I didn't expect to walk in and see boxes and boxes of pressed flowers and leaves, literally thousands of blooms. Debbie and her sister had carefully removed them from the phone books and sorted them into boxes so that everything was separated into categories. (This picture is only part of the collection of the items they gave me!) I have spent the better part of two rainy days "leafing" through them (pun intended!) and getting inspiration. I am so excited to have new items that I haven't pressed before, like sassafras and gingko leaves, and expand my line of Petal People. What could have been tossed away without a thought will give me many days of creative satisfaction and expression. Thanks Debbie and Rosy! Good karma is headed your way!

Etsy!

For mature eyes only!

OK, here is one more of my Petal People, a tongue-in-cheek one that I made of a naked stick person, embarrassed to be caught without an outfit of flowers and leaves, and is trying to cover herself up. Her breasts are little Bridal Wreath blossoms and her, ahem, hair is Queen Anne's Lace. Cracks me up!!