Okay, okay. I know it’s been a lifetime since I actually found some time to post. But once I saw the work of Annie Vought, I knew I had to have a little Experts homecoming. Vought, an Oakland-based artist, finds beauty in what sadly seems to be a vanishing art: the handwritten letter. She meticulously handcuts the correspondences, removing all negative space to showcase the forms of the individual letters themselves.
From Vought’s site:
The handwriting and the lines support the structure of the cut paper, keeping it strong and sculptural, despite its apparent fragility. In these paper cutouts, I focus on the text, structure, and emotion of the letter in an elaborate investigation into the properties of writing and expression. Penmanship, word choice, and spelling all contribute to possible narratives about who that person is and what they are like. My recreating the letters is an extended concentration on peoples’ inner lives and the ways they express their thoughts through writing.
Aren’t these pieces from artist Jill Sylvia so lovely? Since they combine some of my favorites, ledgers and cut paper (speaking of which, I cannot wait for my copy of Tree of Codes to arrive!), it probably comes as no surprise that I am enamored with them. Check out her site to see some amazing looking installations and some more sculptural pieces as well.
We’ve posted about Famille Summerbelle’s maps in the past, and while I think they are all lovely, Julie Marabelle has really outdone herself with her new world map. I would love to see it in person to see all of the darling illustrations and details. Check out the video below for a peek into Julie’s process.
You may have seen this on a blog or two in the last few days. If you haven’t watched it, take the time to do so now. It’s a New Zealand Book Council moody stopmotion cut paper animation.
It’s pretty great though only my second or maybe third favorite stopmotion paper animation. This one for Onitsuka Tiger clearly has some fancy computer trickery but is mostly folded paper.
And if it’s more moody southern pacific animations you’re looking for, and you have a few minutes, my highest recommendation goes out to the Nick Cave-narrated award-winning Aussie animation masterpiece The Cat Piano. It’s not cut paper or folded paper but it’s all sorts of brilliant.
We posted some of Craig Ward’s work before, but I was just looking at Blanket Magazine and saw a cut-paper piece that he made that I think is just great.
Julene Harrison makes beautiful, intricate cut paper designs. If you contact her, she will even create a custom paper cut for you. Check out more of her work on her blog Made By Julene.
View more of Julene’s beautiful work after the jump.
As you might know, we are really into cut paper and paper sculpture. I just came across UK-based artist Helen Musselwhite‘s lovely paper sculptures. See more after the jump.
Many cultures have many different names for the art of cut paper: Scherenschnitte (German), Kirie (Japanese), Sanjhi (Indian) and Papel Picado (Mexican) are just a few. In honor of etsy day and my love of silhouettes, I’ve chosen some papercuttings that range from semi-traditional and folky to super-intricate and modern. All of these amazingly delicate works of art are cut by hand.
I love seeing the ways in which different artists approach the same theme. The four artists below use the boundaries of maps to create beautiful pieces of art all in distinct styles and media.
I’ve been admiring these State Maps from Frank Chimero for a while — I first saw them at his shop at 1000 Markets where you can get prints of the individual states (in addition to selling at 1000 Markets, he also works as the interaction designer for the site). You can see see more of his work on his site and if you’d like to learn more about his work and process, there is an extensive interview over on Grain Edit.
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Great typographic City Neighborhood posters by Ork Posters; available both as posters and screenprints in a variety of colorways.
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The World
Detail from Manhattan, 2007
Middle East, 2007
Paris, 2007 I would love to see these amazing typographic map paintings by Paula Scher in person. I have a feeling that the images online don’t really do them justice — the level of detail looks unbelievable. View more maps at Paula Scher’s site and at the Maya Stendhal Gallery.
