Wisteria

Taking things in a different direction, Joe made his first "papercutting" out of vinyl! This graceful depiction of wisteria worked really well as decoration for our display at the Saturday Art Market in St. Pete.

To tell the truth, lots of people stopped to talk about the wisteria, but weren't interested in the framed art! We're looking forward to hearing some custom orders for these all weather, large scale, papercuts!

In the works...

Finish one, time for another! Here's a sneak peak at the sketches Joe's made for his new piece. It's going to be a round piece similar to the Wycinanki piece, but this one will be entirely black and white. It's inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as the traditional Polish papercutting style (again, called Wycinanki) which is cut in the round. More pictures to come once it's all framed!

Commission Finished

Joe just finished this funky commission of the Louvre for one of his coworkers. I think she is planning on hanging it in her new home office. Measuring a weighty 20x16" this is one of the larger pieces Joe has made, and I would say it is also the single most complicated. Good thing it wasn't raining when he brought it in today!

This is a really cool piece to add to his portfolio, and hopefully it will encourage others to ask for commissioned pieces too!

Saturday Art Market!

We just had our first Saturday Art Market in St. Pete, FL (!!). It eventually did rain us out, but surprisingly quite a few people showed up. There was even a sidewalk chalk artist there to help advertise and send art-go-ers to our booth.


We're still getting a hang of the whole display thing... But I think it came off really well! Surprisingly we had everything done on time for this morning, and it only took us maybe half an hour to set up





When it was time to take the display down (again...rain) we got to drive right onto the park! THAT was pretty fantastic.
All in all, a very exciting day, even if we only sold 5 dollars worth of merchandise. We got to meet some fun people, as well as see a few familiar faces. Hopefully we'll be able to go back next Saturday and peddle a few more wares.

About Papercutting: Scherenschnitte

Scherenschnitte is a German papercutting style, which literally translated to “Scissors Cutting”. It arose in Germany in the 1500’s, and is now global with centers in Germany and Pennsylvania. This is one of the most popular modern styles of papercutting with a fairly large number of artists in America creating scherenschnitte. The scherenschnitte above was made by Luise Theil Bücher.

The topics and style tends to be silhouette-based representations of people, trees, animals, and structures. It has a very folk-art feeling and can range from simple to extremely complex designs. Occasionally, depending on the design and desired effect, scherenschnitte incorporate folding resulting in bilateral (or more) symmetry. Country scenes, religious events, and domestic topics are very popular topics in scherenschnitte.

Scherenschnitte artists include Susanne Schlapfer-Geiser, who published an amazing how-to book entirely illustrated with her work, Cindy, a fellow blogger, and Marie-Helene L. Grabman among many others. Artists traditionally use scissors to create their designs, but blades have become a popular tool for cutting the designs.

Official Debut: Boston Public Garden

Boston Public Garden

5x7 framed

Available on Etsy

(statue location is approximately 200 feet from where Jen and I got married)

Official Debut: Jen

Jen

5x7 Framed

Available on Etsy

Official Debut: Compass

Compass

5x7 framed (double matted)


Available Etsy soon

Williams Park Art Show

So yesterday we checked out the Saturday Art Market in St. Pete. It was a little smaller than I hoped- maybe around 20 vendors? But the work that was there was high quality and there were quite a few people out and about buying things.

We'll definitely give it a shot next weekend and see how it goes! So FYI:

-Every Saturday
-Williams Park, St. Pete
-Corner of 1st Ave North and 3rd Street
-9am-2pm

We're working on securing another slightly bigger show for next month too. It's in the Tampa area, not quite as far out as St. Pete. We had pretty good success at art shows in the past so we're just trying to explore this avenue a little more. Hopefully it will pay off!

Art Show Season

This was us (Joe in the center, and me cut off on the left apparently staring at the ground...?) at our last art show in October. It was Seminole Park in the downtown St. Pete area and Joe was voted the audience favorite!

We've just signed up for our next show(s) at the nearby Williams Park. They're trying to breath some life into the area by hosting a weekly Saturday Art Market.

These weekly art shows sound like a great idea! Now that we've been accepted to the shows we can choose any of the Saturdays we'd like- a great deal!

We're going to check it out tomorrow and see what the scene is like- I'll be sure to report back

In Progress

I love taking pictures of Joe while he's working- it just cracks me up!

He's working on a commission of the Louvre here, with all that crazy architecture

Really gets across the point though- each papercut is made of one sheet of paper with lots and lots of pieces cut out.

Notecards

Awhile back we created notecards from some of the finished papercut designs. They are the only prints that we ever plan to make. I spent all afternoon scanning in pictures of them on a cool blue background and they're finally finished! I put them for sale at: www.papercutsbyjoe.etsy.com and so far it looks like people like them. I hope.

Feel free to leave some good comments- do you think cards are a good idea? Do you like the way these came out? Which is your favorite design?

Thanks!

Gallery

We are pleased to announce that Joe's work will continue to be shown for another three months at the Tampa Artist Emporium in downtown Hyde Park, FL .

http://www.tampaartistemporium.com/

Our first three months were a learning experience. We've tweaked the display, painted the display wall, added more information, and a picture of the artist. Hopefully all of this will add to a more enjoyable gallery experience for anyone who has a chance to view Joe's work in person.

The gallery has monthly "art mixers" where the artists all come out to meet and greet with complimentary wine and a terrific atmosphere.

It's a really welcoming environment, especially as we're learning the inner workings of the art market and how to do art "full time."

Poll

Please take a second and answer the poll on the right.

Thanks!

***New Artwork*** Trees

Announcing a new piece entitled Trees inspired by an Arts&Crafts period book cover art by .



Specs:
Trees
9x11 papercutting
11x14 framed
Purchase on Etsy

This design was something I had in mind when I stumbled upon the book cover of "In Russet and Silver" by Edmund Gosse. The original cover was designed by Will Bradley and it really screamed “papercut” so I drew out a design that captured both the trees and the background landscape. It’s a very calming piece.

***New Artwork*** Chairs

Announcing a new piece entitled Chairs based on three Craftsman period chairs designed by Charles Renee Macintosh and Gustav Stickley

Specs:
Chairs
Three 5x7 papercuttings
12x22 framed
Purchase on Etsy

I really, really love the style of furniture from this period. The pieces have such a distinct and unique form and detail that I couldn’t avoid capturing it in a piece. These sillhouetts capture the style and form of the pieces in a graphic and bold way.

Arts & Crafts Philosophy

I talk about the Arts and Crafts movement a lot and even have a substantial amount of pieces inspired by this style. I suppose I should explain why I am so interested in this period.

Though typically arts and crafts usually refer to pom-poms, felt, feathers, and summer camp, there was a period in world history, specifically the late 19th and early 20th century Britain and America (flourishing from 1910-1925), where craftsmanship and pride in one’s work became an artistic and architectural movement. Famous names including Gustav Stickley, Frank Lloyd Wright, Greene and Greene, William Morris, and Walter Crane epitomized this movement.

The Arts and Crafts, or Craftsman movement arose as a protest against the neutering effect of the Industrial Revolution on artistic expression and quality craftsmanship. The emphasis was on mass production and appeal, and the torch carriers of the A&C movement reacted with an emphasis on hand-made goods, artistic expression without showy expressions of grandeur (ala Rococo), and emphasis on the details and “guts” of their work. Things appeared simple, but the craftsmen deliberately made their work more complex than needed, to subtly showcase their talent and ability.

This can be seen the photos here. Architectural expressions came with the exposure and emphasis of support structure and built-ins with a heavy use of wood. In furniture, the emphasis was on simple lines with complicated construction that was both durable and expressive. This manifested itself in complicated joinery and subtle inlay- just because it was harder (and more interesting). In other forms of art, A&C influences included the use of

traditional mediums such as pottery, silver, and tapestry, and the attempt to increase complexity and detail while still remaining uncomplicated.

So… you can see where the connection to papercutting exists. Papercutting is an overall simplistic art with a basic material, however papercutters create complicated designs that at first appear to be straight-forward until closer inspection reveals the complexity of the art. It isn’t about overt showy-ness, it’s about the details and the quality of work. I try to push this medium to its limit, but I never want to come off as being showy and overt.

papillons paper cut

Amazing French papercuts of butterflies! Will be adding other videos over time. Keep checking back!

Detail

Some people were asking me what the papercuts look like before they are done,

Here are two photographs of papercuts in progress. The first is a shot of the water area of the Portland Headlight papercutting. You can see the pattern I made for the design. The patterns are lightly adhered to the back of the papercuttings and removed after I finish cutting them.

The second is an Arts&Crafts piece that I drew, photocopied, and adhered to a piece of black paper. I have finished cutting the papercut, but haven't taken the pattern off yet. I hope to post some day video of me creating a papercut so you all can see the process.

Cheers

How I became a papercutter

I created my first papercut about 10 years ago in a summer program that included an arts section. Our instructor showed us some really simple basic designs. I didn’t do another papercut until my mother, who had a daycare, brought home a book on papercutting and I started copying the designs in it. Several years later, in college, I found a few designs of prehistoric Mimbres pottery from Arizona that would make great designs. I made three papercuts based on Mimbres pottery (two of which are still available). I then created designs from other ancient cultures (I have a degree in archaeology) including the two Mayan designs seen on the website.

Eventually I found out how to create designs from photographs and created the large papercutting of Portland Headlight, which took about a year to complete. After that was done, I realized I could do any type of design I wanted to and have since been persuing various styles and design ideas. The results you can see here, on the website, and Etsy.

That’s my story:)

Jen!

Hi everyone,

My amazing wife, Jen, who has been doing tons (most actually) of the behind-the-scene work for this and my other websites, will be contributing to this blog along with me. Please welcome her and look forward to seeing many interesting post on papercutting related topics soon!