Circles and Animals: The Mouse

September 16, 20131 Comment

I’m jumping ahead a bit in sharing new work for the Circles and Animals series. I actually completed The Mouse after two other pieces in the series I have yet to share. This was commissioned by a client who was looking for new artwork to hand in their new Gastown offices.

I shared a few options for paper cutting work with the client and he decided to go with a circle cut layered piece featuring a mouse. He’s pretty darn cute, and I’m surprised I didn’t think of this animal sooner for the series.

One thing of note about this piece is, I went back and re-did the tail after the pieces were already assembled and glued. It was a bit of tricky business to cut away the original tail from the mouse and reattach the new one, all without wrecking the piece in the process.

As of last week, The Mouse hangs in its new home in The Jibe offices in Gastown. Check out more work from the Circles and Animals series I’ve shared previously -> (Fox, Snail, Owl, Crow, Koi)

Artist Trades in Paper

August 14, 2013

A few times a year I arrange to trade work with other artists. It goes something like this: they like my artwork, and I like their artwork and so we work out a deal and make an exchange of work.

My most recent trade is with origami artist, Joseph Wu. Over the last few years he’s very generously given me a few pieces, including the two lovebirds he made in memorial to Yuuki, and the lunar new year water dragon pictured below.

It was only after I commissioned Joseph to create an origami portrait of my friend’s dog for his fortieth birthday that we agreed to do an exchange for one of my paper cut pieces.

I took a short video on Instagram as I was working on the paper cut piece:

The finished size is 10″ x 10″, and is made up of two separate sections cut from a single piece of paper. The tricky part was mounting these into the cradle frame without destroying the work because there wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver.

It’s a lovely continuation of my Wind and Water paper cut series. Now I just need to get it into Joseph’s hands.

Circles and Animals: Koi

August 12, 2013

Not all animals seem to lend themselves to this series but koi certainly do. This is the fifth piece in the on-going Circles and Animals series, and I’ve yet to decide upon the next animal to include.

(Previous Circles and Animals: Fox, snail, owl, crow)

Unlike the other ones in the series I’ve included two creatures instead of one in the same piece. It made more sense to me in terms of composition. The Koi is 12″ x 12″ and is made with two pieces of archival drawing paper within a wood cradle panel.

I will have time to return to making more pieces in this series later this week. Let me know if you have a suggestion for the next animal.

Circles and Animals: The Fox

August 8, 2013

The Fox is the fourth piece in the Circles and Animals series. (Previous work in the series: snail, owl, crow). He’s a bit more wolfy looking than I’d intended, with a touch of coyote. Call this animal what you will, but I’m sticking with fox.

As with others in this series, this is cut from two pieces of archival white drawing paper and mounted within a cradle panel. The challenge as I continue to work on this series is to make each one unique while using the same circle cut layering technique.

I finished two of these last week, and will share the second one in another blog post. In case you’re wondering, these are for sale, so please do inquire.

Circles and Animals: The Crow

August 1, 2013

The Crow is the third in my Circles and Animals paper cut series. I finished him last Tuesday and by the next day it was purchased by someone who follows me on Instagram. It makes my head spin a bit when things find a home so quickly.

It was a no-brainer to include a crow in this series because they are a fascinating bird (one of my favourites), and also an unofficial symbol of East Vancouver. I chose to keep the details minimal in the bird because a crow’s black body is a silhouette by default.

At some point soon I may make these available as prints and products on Society6. I would love a crow pillow, or maybe even a laptop cover. In the meantime the series has continued. I finished two more animals earlier this week, which you can see a preview of on Instagram.

Circles and Animals Series: Paper Cut Grumpy Owl

July 25, 2013

The selection of animals I am choosing for this series is a bit random, but I’m okay with that. I’m basing my choices on animals I like, but also one ones I think will translate well into the medium of paper cutting.

When I first made this owl I didn’t really like him, but his grumpy little face grew on me. I think owls lend themselves nicely to a composition full of circles.

The finished size for this is 12″ x 12″. I decided to make two layers of circle cut paper instead of three because it gets trickier to fit the pieces together at this larger size. I’ve also started to collect the pieces of circular paper I cut away because I may use them for another idea.

The grumpy owl was joined yesterday by an elegant paper cut crow, and a as yet unfinished little fox. The list of circles and animals in the series is slowly growing.

Circles and Animals: Paper Cut Snail

July 23, 2013

I finished the snail paper cut artwork just before I went on vacation last week but I didn’t have enough time to share it. I am very pleased with this one. It has turned out so beautifully, and I adore the delicate little snail.

I have an affection for snails, and have become fascinated with them over the last few years. There are a few different snails that often hang out on the outside of the front window of our apartment because they’re attracted to the fallen seeds from the bird feeder. Not everyone thinks snails are cute, but I do. (Oh those expressive little eyestalks…)

There are three layers of circle cut paper within the wood cradle panel, and the finished size is 12″ x 9″. The snail itself is about three inches long.

I will be making more of these with snails eventually, but for now I’ve started working on other animals. I’ll share the completed owl paper cut later this week, and there is also a crow now in-progress.

Circles and Animals Work in Progress

July 16, 20132 Comments

The second series I began working on a week and a half ago (along with the one I mentioned previously) is a revisit to the land of circle cut layers of paper. It’s a darn good idea and I decided it needn’t end with white rabbits.

The first animals that came to mind were snails, owls, and crows because they are amongst my favourites. I cut a somewhat sloppy owl face that I will probably redo, but the snail is simple and perfect.

Progress on the snail paper cut layers was coming along nicely until I accidentally dripped blue ink onto the piece. That’ll teach me to not to leave work on the floor while other work involving ink is going on.

What are your favourite animals? I’m open to suggestions, as long as they suit the circles.

Work In Progress Paper Cut Things

July 10, 2013

After Currents of Nature went up a few weeks ago I was left with time to decide on what I wanted to work on next. In an usual turn of events I’ve started working on multiple things at once. The work I’m sharing here is one of the two.

The idea began with playing around with painting the paper because I’m starting to feel the work needs colour. I was working with a scrap piece of paper and ended up cutting this small flower shape. Suddenly I started thinking about creating a sculpture from multiple small paper cut shapes, and so I decided to cut more of these flowers. When I had thirteen of them it didn’t feel like enough so I’ve decided to keep going with this as a long term side-project. At the moment I have twenty of these flower/starburst shapes, and there will be many more to come.

Sometimes I’ve been cutting these when I watch tv, and it feels a bit like my version of knitting. I’m not yet sure where this is going to end up, though I do have some things in mind.

Thank goodness I took the time to experiment.

Currents of Nature In Situ

July 2, 2013

My solo show, Currents of Nature, opened this past weekend at the Ranger Station Art Gallery in Harrison. Here are photos of the exhibition:

Currents of Nature, Ranger Station Art Gallery

One side of the gallery has altered book work and installations, while the other has recent paper cut sculptures and wall pieces.

Currents of Nature, Ranger Station Art Gallery-3

Thanks to my friend Siobhan Humston for making the installation process so smooth and easy. All of the work was in position within two hours of my arrival at the gallery, and the show looks terrific.

Currents of Nature will be on display until July 28th as part of the Harrison Festival of the Arts, so please do visit the show.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life

Category: Paper