Back in March I had my paper cut structures (Vessels) featured on All Things Paper, and the Imaginary Girl series was featured on Sway blog.
Click the links below to read the full articles.
Cut Paper Structures – Rachael Ashe
Sway Vision: Imaginary Girl by Rachael Ashe
It’s always a thrill to have my work mentioned on other blogs.
I’ve been busy working on exhibition proposals for possible shows in the next two years, and it’s been a great excuse to project farther into the future with my work. I really want the paper cut work to be three dimensional and my initial explorations led me to the structural/sculptural pieces I shared last month. But I also started thinking about ways to play with layers, and shadows within framed work.
Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
Wisps, 2013 – 12″ x 12″ cut paper in cradle panel
Using the inside of a wood cradle panel as my frame, I sanded and painted it with a light wash of white. I cut the three strips that make up this piece separately from the one piece of paper and all are attached by a tab of paper at the top and bottom. The middle piece is slightly deeper in the frame than the others.
These are just some quick photos so the lighting isn’t quite right, but this way of integrating the paper cuts into the frame creates more depth. This is important to me because I wanted room for the paper cut pieces to cast interesting shadows, which will vary depending on the lighting.
With each new exploration I feel like I’m getting closer to where I want to be with the paper cutting work.
I’ve begun setting up a little shop on Society6 to sell prints and other products of some of my work. At the moment there are only six items available and all are cut paper designs.
If you love the cut paper typography series I now have three words available on Society6 as prints, and iPhone cases. I really love the cases and may have to get one myself. I’m hoping to make these available in a few other colours, so let me know if there is something you’d like.
Keep an eye on Society6 as I add more work to my shop.
After my initial explorations into cut paper typography with the word Art a few weeks ago I decided to choose a few more words to work with. Make goes very well with Art, and after today Create will be added to the series.
To give you a sense of scale this is an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of red card stock, and the letters are between 2.25″ to 3″ high. I create the word in photoshop first, print it out and use this as a template to draw an outline of the letters. All the cutting of shapes is done freehand.
I enjoy trying to form the letters from smaller shapes. It’s actually pretty challenging because I am working so small. I think it’s an excellent exercise to refine my paper cutting technique even further.
Other than the word “Create” can you suggest other short words that would make a good addition to this series? I’m open to requests.
In Vancouver we are incredibly lucky to have a spring season that not only shows up as early as March (or even February) but also lasts for an extended period of time. Add in the bounty of flowering trees blanketing the city with pink and white blossoms, and you have the most wonderful time of the year to be in Vancouver (sorry Christmas).
I go a little bonkers taking endless photos of every type of flower I can find. My favorite combination are the pink cherry blossoms against an intense blue sky.
Oh spring, how I love thee!
This lovely little kokeshi doll is my contribution to an upcoming fundraising event at the Nikkei Museum. This is my first time contributing work to their annual BLOOM art auction, an event that supports the exhibitions, educational and cultural programs at the museum.
There are about 100 artists contributing work, and each was provided with a basic wooden kokeshi doll they could customize however they liked. I am very curious to see all of these dolls together on the night of the event.
My doll is eight inches high (we had a few sizes to choose from) and I have decorated her head to toe in cut paper. Her face is cut from white paper, and her clothing and head dress are cut from red paper.
The dress is one piece of paper, while her head is decorated with multiple pieces of cut paper. This was actually her first outfit which I cut to pieces and used a different way because I wasn’t happy with how it turned out (because I’m picky).
If you’re interested in purchasing one of the dolls the silent auction is happening on Thursday, April 25th, from 7pm to 9:30pm. Tickets are $25 to attend and can be purchased in advance online using paypal.
Do you remember those paper instruments I was commissioned to make a few months ago? The music video they appear in has recently surfaced and I can finally share it with you.
This is Current Swell’s latest release, “I Want A Bird”.
The video was created by the wonderful team at Giant Ant.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the opening reception for Ruminations of Order at Cityscape Gallery in North Vancouver. This is a group show featuring the work of four artists exploring pattern and repetition, among other things. It’s a really fantastic show, but the work that stood out most strongly for me were two installations made from paper by Rosemary Burden.
Working with volumes of antique books she has meticulously created a staggering amount of paper butterflies using a paper punch. The overall impact of this mass of paper gives the viewer a sense of wonder. It’s really something to see.
Both installations include the original book cover, which is a really nice touch. I would love to create a paper installation on a similar scale someday.
There is an artist talk happening this Saturday March 23rd, and the show continues on until April 13th. Read more about Ruminations of Order on the gallery website.
I’ve long admired the work of Elsa Mora, a Cuban artist living in LA who works in various mediums including paper cutting. I was looking at her website earlier this week as a way to jog my thinking on how to write about my own paper cut work, and came across her new site, Art Is A Way.
It’s a lovely little side project of creating artwork using the word Art, and she’s invited people to join her. I don’t normally have much interest in exploring typography in my own work, but the project inspired me to experiment with typography created in my style of cut paper.
I chose a font in photoshop, Tamil NM in bold, made it large enough to nicely fill an 8.5″ x 11″ page and printed it out. I used this as a template to trace the outline of the letters first and then freehand cut all shapes. It was really fun to do, and has me pondering more potential work using type.
If you’re interested in creating your own work of the word Art, check out the about page of Art Is A Way for details.
A few photos taken last week when it was sunny, warm, and felt like spring was about to begin.
