Serendipity--Cut By Hand

December 11, 2007

Serendipity--Cut By Hand

If serendipity is about things not sought for, then today's challenge from Arty Girlz is perfect for this page from one of my ubiquitous art journals! The theme is "hand cutting", and there's so much hand cutting in many of my journals that I've had to alter some of the covers to contain it all (all that gluing-in of card stock takes up room)! What a perfect fit!

This bird was hand cut from paper made in Corel Painter X. I never use templates when I hand-cut these objects and I'm never sure just what they'll look like until I'm finished cutting. A lot of what comes out depends on the paper. It's pattern and grain determine which way the scissors will glide most easily. Although I hadn't really thought of it before, I think that's the key. Ease of glide. Because if I find myself at a difficult angle or turn that I think I can't negotiate with a perfectly natural ease, then I change direction to accommodate without even thinking. Anything that is forced is obvious in the end result, so I am always less concerned with precision in capturing the image in my mind, than I am with a smooth and effortless execution.

The flowers were cut from commercial paper: DCWV's "Posies Glitter Print". The greenery and the blue sky were drawn-in and colored with watercolor pencils, and the journal entry was very obviously written in blue ballpoint pen.

Back on the subject of hand-cutting things: I got started doing this by accident early last summer. Driving kids to and from studios left me far enough away and with too little time to drive back home, and with too much time on my hands (and little desire) to hang-out in ballet company waiting rooms where I seem to have spent the lion's share of my life. There are some wonderful private cubby holes in some of our libraries, and one near this particular studio was where I set up shop for the few hours I had to wait every day. I hate, hate, hate, lugging supplies! So I chose the most portable things I could think of that would fit comfortably in a tote bag and not be too heavy: Art paper, scissors, glue stick and some colored pencils and pens in a little zip case.

I figured that if Matisse could cut out such wonderful images when he was blind and in a hospital bed, then I might be able to cut out some at least mediocre ones at a desk. If anything at all, I discovered it was fun enough to keep at it, and I was amazed at the almost zen-like state this cutting puts me in! I do know how silly this sounds, but the figures seem to pop themselves out of the paper much more than I feel like I'm directing the scissors in cutting them.

The last thing I want to tell you is that I have always been really terrible at cutting things out when using a template or following lines on a paper. This is just accentuated when cutting fabric rather than paper. For this reason, I have always hated patterns and have tended to make things my own way. Even after several months of cutting with absolute freedom, my "follow-the-lines" cutting has not improved. It may even have taken a turn for the worse. I have no idea if this is true, but my guess is that freedom of motion cutting without a preconceived pattern is a right-brain activity, and the follow-the-lines stuff may be more left brain. Just a guess.

The caveat to this is that the images I find myself cutting are nothing at all in style like my drawings! I would never think to draw birds the way I cut them out. The same with all the other images, particularly my silhouettes of people and animals. Subject matter that I'd take time and thought with in drawing are snipped out of paper in seconds and without a thought. It's eerie! Kind of a cross between mystical and sci-fi. But it works. And my drawing improves on days when I've made cuttings. So there you have it. I can't explain it- -probably some deep and hopefully not too dark psychological phenomena going on here, but as long as it's for art. . . .right?

Posted at 01:18 PM in Arty Grilz | Permalink