Paper Cuts
I am a recent member of the Richmond Arts Coalition joining in 2021. My ‘paper cut’ piece entitled Punchesacut Lake Trees hung in the December juried exhibition at Richmond Art Gallery. I currently live in Vancouver but began making ‘paper cuts’ while living in Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast. I was primarily interested in composing landscape related studies from found paper or art papers such as Canson Mi – Teintes I exhibited in the Sunshine Coast Art Centre’s annual juried exhibitions and in a two person show before moving to Vancouver. In Vancouver, I worked in chalk pastels showing twice in the B.C. Festival of the Arts. Later I took classes at Emily Carr College of Art & Design, Langara College and finally a degree with U.B.C’s Fine Arts Department. Here I majored in drawing and painting and received runner up for the Helen Pitt award. After graduating I returned to working in the medium of cut paper. I make copies of photographs I have taken often enlarging the images many times to achieve the colours and shapes I desire. With the use of embroidery scissors, I cut from the colours and then afix the pieces to paper. My recent works are all derived from the photographs I took of Pavilion Lake just north of Lillooet, B.C. These cut pieces are all in the shape of circles which are meant to represent the smallest particles from which all matter is composed. As the work is meticulous and very time consuming, I am slow to complete pieces. My largest and most recent work was completed over a period of 18 years. It was often very challenging requiring me to take breaks when I would work on other pieces.
I can be reached by email at swolpert@shaw.ca
