Paper Sculpture #4

Please full screen video for best effect


This piece measures about 22 inches by 34 inches.  Aptly titled Cathedral Window, it’s a statement on obesity in America and sugar to pacify children and ourselves. View Cathedral Window and see how insidious refined sugar and particularly candy is, in our society.

The wrappers, typically thrown away,  represent the appeal to children, through marketing, family habits, peers and public school events.  All holidays, even ones created by greeting card companies, are “missing something” without colorful candy, including the packaging!

Unlike a real cathedral window, no light shines through, though it seems as if it can.  The bright and bold colors symbolize the love affair we have with refined sugar.  The white paper exemplifies pure blindness -  our choice to consume  will surely negatively affect us and our children eventually. The color variety demonstrates  the unlimited choices we can make.

There is more, of course, and I’ll leave it to you, to see.

˜

Constructed in blocks about 11-12″ square, the “windows” are not glued on, but are an part of each block.  To create dimension I folded all paper into place and each block connected on the reverse.

Cathedral Windows is a quilt style pattern, so by studying this and a quilt or coverlet of the same name, you might see more clearly how I created this piece in paper.

Each candy wrapper folded in half lengthwise, halves fused together and cut into a 1.25″ square.

ENJOY!!

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Paper Sculpture #2

 

Please full screen the video for best effect.

In this sculpture, I continue my joyful interpretation of  the puzzling and fascinating rabbit.  Here, I’m capturing the movement, activity and surprising twists, turns, shudders and shakes of my rabbits, when they’re outside in the “play” area.  They have such joy of movement and grace when, air moves around them, temperature changes and grass and soil’s beneath their feet.

I’ve used vintage curling ribbons, gift bags, art papers, mulberry papers, scrap-book papers, and more.  I’ve set the art into a vintage wooden frame.

I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I enjoyed creating it.  Perhaps you, too, will ‘see’ what my rabbits experience  in their playground.

 

Revolution & Revelation – Pressed Flowers

If only…  If only I had written the book twenty five years ago, it would still be on people’s shelves…

After doing some research into the world of pressed flowers, I have decided against moving forward with writing “the book.”  However, for those that wish to explore pressing flowers, there are numerous blogs, books and people like me who’d be happy to assist you.

There are world wide guilds and organizations for pressed floral artists and the internet and technology is so immersed in people’s lives, that a book seems redundant.

There are excellent pressed floral artists now, and the crafty individual can enjoy the process by making cards, bookmarks or embellishing a mat for a family photo.  The whole family can be involved.

All those years ago, my outline complete, I wrote about perfecting my process, winning ribbons, creating my unique style.  Mail order, correspondence, magazines, books, television and radio ads, libraries and art/craft shows were available for support.

Am I disappointed? I was, for a day and maybe just a little, still.  I’m a relic from the past, one who appreciates only a modicum of technology as it’s useful to me. I won’t keep up – folks speed past me. Staying close to the natural world holds greater meaning and value.

I had dedicated myself to raising kids, struggling to feed, house and clothe them, giving my time to them, teaching them, loving them, playing, laughing and creating with them and stimulating their minds so to send them on their separate ways, with hope that they lead full and happy lives.   The value of our experiences together, far exceeds a published book on pressed flowers.

Flowers for you!

Will I write about the flowers and my experience with them?  Perhaps. It’s a bit sad that I didn’t focus on my dream more steadily in my younger years.  I’m writing now. Luckily, one thing always leads to another.

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Patrícia Almeida - Umbrella Installation Photos

Reblogged from apk:

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Flickr photographer Patrícia Almeida recently shot these great photos of a wonderfully whimsical umbrella installation using her iPhone and camera. Like something out of a fairy tale, the umbrellas look almost like they're magically floating in mid-air. As she writes, "In July in Águeda (a Portuguese town) some streets are decorated with colorful umbrellas. I felt like a kid, amazed by all that color!" Love this kind of outdoor art.

Read more… 21 more words

I can imagine being there - under all that color, in shadow and light, absolutely transported to another world!

Art Up! Paper Sculpture #1

Creating with paper -  I get lost in the process.  It’s similar to pressed floral artwork but the florals are even more delicate, ethereal, than most papers.

Paper is flat!  No dimension!  I enjoy manipulating paper, as it’s normally a background or medium to showcase art forms.  More artists use paper as art, sometimes intuitively as I do, or in controlled, mathematical or even obsessive ways. There’s uncountable textures, colors, weight to work with. In all my work, I use at least some paper that’s ordinarily thrown away or otherwise unnoticed.

As I work, I let things flow – what’s next, what color I need, what shape, size, design. How can I bend it, fold it, roll it, twist it, cut it, turn it, manipulate it to express my position, my emotion, my view -

The following piece is an All Around Sculpture  intended to be viewed from every angle.  The front is what faces you, which changes as does your physical position.  Looking inside provides yet another view and position for interpretation.

The table, or base, measures about 4″ x 4″ and a handmade paper that was given to me.   I used only scissors to choose  shapes, except for the bunnies, which were punched.

A variety of vintage papers, recycled papers, unlikely papers, art paper, scrapbook papers, index cards and more came into play.   Created instinctively,  finished the same way and took  two months time.

∩

The inspiration for this project came from my desire to explore and express the actions and activities of my enigmatic rabbits.  In this piece, I show the energy, complexity and depth they possess.   Each rabbit has a personality, though they share similar behaviors.  They’re full of surprises, fears, curiosity, intelligence, feeling and entertainment.

This sculpture is a first in a series of three, dedicated to my rabbits.

Bunny Love #1 – Turn of Events

♥PLEASE WATCH IN FULL SCREEN FOR BEST EFFECT♥

This piece is available for purchase.
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On the Art of Pressed Flowers

 

When I moved to Southern California in late 1988, I went to Floral Design School in Los Angeles.  Shortly after graduating, I landed a gig at the instructor’s floral shop on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.  I didn’t last long, though, as the partner found out that I had bookkeeping experience and preferred to use me in that area. That didn’t work for me, so I bounced around from shop to shop and even considered opening my own floral shop.

I found something else -

Since I had learned all the elements of a floral design, including Ikebana and other unique design methods, I decided to explore the Victorian Art of Pressed Flowers.  During the Victorian era, there was a great movement and love of Botany.

There were very few books on the subject, and what I found, I studied intensely.  I made my own presses, and found the perfect materials to make a high quality pressed flowers.  After throwing away thousands of bad results, success!

Here’s a sample of the floral designs that I kept copies of, and these copies are OLD, so please forgive the quality.

Collage featuring purples/greens

This collage created with maidenhair fern, wormwood, hydrangea, lobelia and viola, aka johnny jump ups.  I used a watercolor paper and cut my own mats, which was carefully chosen for color, texture and shape.

Topiary style

Here I created a topiary style design, with a pansy cut into the shape of a pot, hydrangea petals, thyme, larkspur, and the stems, maidenhair fern.

Ikebana style design

The Ikebana appears simple, but required a great degree of thought to pull it off.  The vase, cut from a large hydrangea, holds marjoram leaves, alyssum, maidenhair fern and small viola.

I sold my work at art shows and won ribbons, competing against fine artists. I was more than a little surprised.

Many times, people would linger, some struck by the beauty of the flowers, the bright colors, the depth and complexity.  Some gasped when they realized that these were not painting and some got teary eyed.  They reminded me of the gift inside me, and I felt obligated to share it.

I taught classes at my home as well as in Los Angeles county and started a book entitled THE EVERY PERSON’S GUIDE TO PRESSED FLOWERS.  Maybe it’s not such a great title after all…

It’s been a long time since I’ve created a floral design.  The heat of the desert and an allergy to pansies stopped my progress.  I’ve seen a number of artists who work in pressed floras, all very different from my own.  I’m considering moving forward again, blogging my way through to a book.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN KNOWING HOW TO CREATE DESIGNS SUCH AS THESE? WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN PURCHASING A KIT TO CREATE A SPECIFIC DESIGN?  YOUR THOUGHTS HERE PLEASE!

(These designs are my own and not to be copied or featured without my permission.)

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Paper Sculpture #3 (Untitled)

 

In a Seapunk2 blog post,  I presented a small section of one of my paper sculptures. I’m presenting it here, in its entirety as a slide show, with a brief description.

Paper in art, a second thought, not noticed, generally a canvas for a particular media.   I have a great choice of papers, including new to antique, trash to treasure, scraps to rolls.

My sculptures are intuitively created, and evolve during the creative process. I begin with a general idea of what I want to convey as well as a general style and form.

In this sculpture, I’ve used a primitive, vintage wooden tray as my base. The base is about 9 x 11 x 1 inches. Please enlarge the video for best effect.

I used new prismatic paper for the backing of the circular papers.  The swirls or twists of art paper cut to fit the depth of the tray and in various lengths.  I  wound the paper with the print inside, to impose a greater depth of color and movement with changing light. After winding each piece, I released it from my fingers, allowing it to “relax.”  I used no glue to keep the shapes.  Each section supports the elements inside.  Each element necessary within a group for strength within the section.

Paper Sculpture #3 dances with light, the dance changes as the light changes.  It plays with your eyes, and catches your imagination.

The restriction within the wooden tray, contradicts the playful movement. As you move around, toward and away from it, constraints obvious, the piece asserts the opposite.

♥

All artwork is available.  For details, please contact me at seapunk2@gmail.com.

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