Drawing and painting are frequently regarded as expressive forms of fine art, but cut paper deserves this recognition as well. Henri Matisse famously described his late-career cut paper works as \u201cdrawing with scissors,\u201d and the grace with which an artist manipulates their hand to create and pull out delicate shapes is truly heartfelt. Artist Jen Hudson\u2019s cut-paper artworks celebrate this exquisite medium. Through pieces that are both intricate and whimsical, she crafts multi-layered depictions of animals in natural settings, framed by elaborate borders.<\/p>\n
Utilizing as many as 20 layers of paper at times, Hudson carefully cuts small shapes from her selected material. By doing so, she adds texture; capturing the pattern of a bird’s feathers or the flowing coat of a fox as it leaps through the woods. Her approach to paper cutting leverages the material to form outlines, imparting an illustrative essence that narrates a moment in a story. Lively and picturesque, the scenes draw us into a serene and enchanting realm, where life is forever blossoming.<\/p>\n
Every artwork is adorned with a decorative border, akin to placing a lavish flourish to conclude a sentence. All frames are crafted freehand without any pre-design. It\u2019s remarkable, but for Hudson, these minute repetitions have become an ingrained part of her technique. \u201cI have developed a few different patterns that I really love making,\u201d she shares with My Modern Met, \u201cand that I can reproduce from muscle memory.\u201d<\/p>\n
My Modern Met engaged Hudson regarding her path to creating cut paper art and her perspective on the \u201cmistakes\u201d that arise during her creative process. Continue reading for our exclusive conversation, condensed for brevity and clarity.<\/p>\n
Can you describe your journey in creating cut paper art?<\/p>\n
I have always aspired to be an artist. Art has been part of my life since I was a child, and my aim was to pursue a career as an illustrator. I attended the Baltimore School for the Arts for high school to refine my fine art skills and technical proficiency, focusing primarily on painting at that time.<\/p>\n
In my final year of high school, I fell seriously ill. It took a considerable amount of time to receive a diagnosis, ultimately identifying multiple forms of dysautonomia in my case. I was diagnosed with POTS syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which began to restrict my creative process. Painting became my solitary physical outlet since it was low-impact on my hands and did not strain the other muscles in my body that were causing me pain. But because painting was all I could physically handle, I eventually felt completely burnt out.<\/p>\n
I began to lose my passion for all forms of painting. I wanted to delve into something more three-dimensional or textile-based, but I struggled to find a method that my body could manage.<\/p>\n
I had recently acquired stunning drawing papers meant to serve as backgrounds for my paintings. Feeling so fatigued by painting, I was hesitant to use them, fearing I might ruin them. With an X-Acto knife in hand and having researched various artistic avenues, I discovered paper cutting. I thought this might be a feasible way to utilize these papers since I wouldn\u2019t be layering anything; I could allow the paper to be the focus and create something small and straightforward to see if it was physically manageable for me.<\/p>\n
I set myself the challenge of creating a simple design without fear of failure, and I found myself falling in love with this craft. That was around 2016, and since then, I\u2019ve been exploring its limits.<\/p>\n
Your creations are so detailed, incorporating 14 to 20 layers of paper per piece. Could you elaborate on your process?<\/p>\n
The papers I utilize are 160 GSM. They\u2019re slightly thicker than standard printer paper, roughly equivalent to two sheets of printer paper stacked. I work with Canson Mi-Tientes papers, which are archival pastel papers and ideal for paper cutting due to their weight.<\/p>\n
And the decorative elements (like borders) are all done freehand, right?<\/p>\n
Yes. Over time in my paper cutting practice, I\u2019ve developed several patterns that I truly enjoy creating from memory. When I am preparing for a show or have had solo exhibitions, I approach it like curating a collection, similar to fashion, featuring repetitive themes or<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Drawing and painting are frequently regarded as expressive forms of fine art, but cut paper deserves this recognition as well. Henri Matisse famously described his late-career cut paper works as \u201cdrawing with scissors,\u201d and the grace with which an artist manipulates their hand to create and pull out delicate shapes is truly heartfelt. Artist Jen Hudson\u2019s cut-paper artworks celebrate this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=556322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/556323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=556322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=556322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=556322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}