Paper Delights

I am always amazed by the power of paper. Something so thin it can be crumpled and tossed away, yet so sharp it can easily cut you like a knife. Something that words can be written on, inked into a page to declare love or war, joy or sadness. Something that can be folded into an intricate design of origami styled folds, yet easily shredded to bits.

On a walk down Carnaby Street yesterday we wandered into one of my favorite stores, Liberty's. Downstairs in the Carnaby room there was a Roger La Borde display with pieces by Rob Ryan and 3 other artist.

All artist who use paper as their means of artistic interpretation. One of the artist was Su Blackwell. I could not stop staring at her pieces, the intricacies and delicate nature of her work was beautiful. One piece on display was a flurry of butterflies coming out of a book, the beautiful colors of some of them against the written words were like little beams of light shooting through a black night.

Another piece of hers existed with trees popping out of an open book, I wanted to jump into those pages, there was a fairytale magic to it. Other artists included Elise Hurst who created two "Mondoodles" for the show and Nelly Dimitranova who doodled all over paint chip leaflets. Rob Ryan had two huge images there, one of a lovely little house with angels on the roof and the words spoke of them watching over the house and everything around it, I really liked that.

All the pieces were made of paper. It is something that is so simple, just paper. But, it wasn't "just paper", no, it held in its fibres so much more.

(Alas, I forgot my lovely camera in the rush to catch a train and our phones decided not to help us take lovely pictures, so these images were taken from Roger la Borde's & Rob Ryan's site.)

I'm "Cut-Out" for It!

While attending the NEC a few weeks ago, we found the wonderful stand that sold Rob Ryan's gorgeous cards! I have liked him for awhile now and love that he is doing cards, which are an affordable luxury to the masses.

I have always loved the art of paper cutting and have always liked that Rob Ryan takes this to a whole new level. His cards have such an air of whimsy to them. I used to sit at my kitchen table when I was little, cutting out heart garlands and angel garlands, making snowflakes to dot around my room. I loved the crunch of the scissors through my paper and the never quite knowing what the final product would look like, or if the garland would even stay together, or had it been cut to close to the edge?

Although, I know he uses a knife, I started out with scissors before I upgraded... I would trace a pattern onto my paper and slowly begin to cut away sections of it with my craft knife. Maybe this was why I loved printmaking so much? One flick of the wrist and your image was created by what you left untouched around it, or by you carving that away and leaving your image raised and ready to be inked.

I can't wait till some of these arrive in my friend's shop, I want to stick them up in frames. I have a card obsession you see! I collect cards I love. Some have been with me since my days in College and carried on to me obtaining my Master's pinned into my little board of inspiration, of reflectiveness, of happiness.

I have a box of cards that slowly as I find the right frames or homes for them they go out, one by one, some being changed around with the seasons.  These cards in his new collection are just beautiful! So, I can't wait to get my hands on them, especially "City Story", we are eternal newlyweds and this card really appeals to me!

 "We had nothing, we had not much, we had enough, we had everything. This was our city story."

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