Chinese New Year of the 'Tyger'

Wishing all of you a very Happy Year of the Tiger and Valentine’s day! Hopefully my tigers will roar this year.

Part of the inspiration for these silk paper cut ‘tygers’ is William Blake’s poem

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

My tygers are half hidden in the forest. The gold one is to remind us that this is the year of the metal tiger – this element gives the tiger its sharpness in action and speed of thought. Tigers born in the Metal year like to stand out in a crowd with an inspiring assertiveness and competitive demeanor.

The red Tyger silk paper cutting is made of several tygers stitched together. Each is slightly different so other shapes and lines can be seen. Seen here it hangs in an open space allowing the viewer to look at it from both sides.

Peering through the fretwork foliage allows the viewer to spy on what’s happening on the other side.

Love Hearts

I’ve been making a series of hearts for a few months now. The starting point was coming across Percy Bysshe Shelley’s quote ‘Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips’. Once I found one beautiful saying I found others and the hearts followed. It gave me the perfect opportunity to incorporate writing into my work. See if you can find the quotes entwined in the hearts!

Now with Valentine’s day fast approaching I am showing them all. Each has been cut in silk paper in a small edition of between 4 – 8. They are a perfect gift and reasonably priced!

Email me if you're interested in any of them.

‘A Kiss makes the Heart Young’ by Rupert Brooke (25x28cm)

‘Soul meets Soul on Lovers’ Lips’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley (25x28cm)

‘Two Hearts Beat as One’ from a song title by U2 (35x28cm)

‘Love is Blind’ from ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare (25x28cm)

‘Love is Friendship set to music’ from E. Joseph Crossman (30x30cm)

The Cut Line workshops

With my current show I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to hold several workshops in Starts gallery in downtown Taipei. One was for adults and one for children. Both workshops were great fun, the participants were keen and during the short time they were there they worked really hard and produced some beautiful work.

With the adults I focused on cutting butterflies using craft knives. This allowed us to explore symmetry and the numerous effects different cut marks can make.

The kids cut out symmetrical tiger faces using scissors (it'll soon be the year of the tiger.). They also decorated masks using scrap silk paper bits (the left overs from my paper cutting). It was a great way to use up some of my huge store of silk paper scraps, which I never throw away! The results were impressive. I just wish we had more time to completely finish them.

The Cut Line

Here are some pictures of the recent opening of my one man show of silk paper cuttings, ‘The Cut Line’, in Taipei. The day of the opening was a warm sunny day and people were out and about enjoying a brief respite from this cold, wet and grey winter. In the cozy confines of Starts Gallery guests ambled and chatted and, I hope, enjoyed the art. Many thanks to all those who came!

The show included work from the last 5 years though the centrepiece was the recent Butterfly Creation series seen here on the left.

It was interesting to show older work against the newer work.

These are from the ‘Butterfly Creation’ series.

This silk paper cut from the Butterfly Creation series is called ‘Butterfly Cloud’. It's pinned to a large scroll in a way that it is suspended bout 1 inch away from the surface. This gives it depth and allows shadows to play on the scroll.

Over the next month or so I’ll focus on different work in the show, some of which has not been seen before.

The Cut Line

What! It's 2010! Why didn't anyone tell me? Why didn't I know? Oh yeah, I remember, I've been stuck in my studio buried under an ever increasing number of silk paper cuts. I'm preparing for an upcoming show, the opening reception of which is Saturday Jan 9th 2010. Please come if you can. It's at Starts Gallery and is open on Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday (2:00 - 6:00pm). Here's the address

地 址：台北市和平東路二段28號B1,1F & 2F (一樓與地下室展示場) (二樓演講廳)
28, Section 2, Ho Ping East Road, Taipei

Here are some pics of my studio in its clean state! You should see it when I left yesterday - I had to shuffle, duck, twist and stretch to get out of the place.

The ever prolific Beatrice Coron dropped by the other day to say hello and see what I was up too. Based in New York she was on a flying visit to Asia so dropped in to see her old friends in Taiwan as well as me. She showed me some of her amazing paper cutting art in the form of artist books, fans and a self made magazine. This is an artist who is totally dedicated to her art! Check out her comprehensive website to see what I mean.

Butterfly Lamp

FINALLY! After months of dithering I finally finished making this lamp. I cut the image out of silk then glued it to the inside of a white lampshade and voila! It’s done, finished, and complete. The reason I’m so happy is that my studio is littered with half finished projects which sit around gathering dust. At least there is now one project less to worry about!

The lamp is 55cm high and is lit by two light bulbs. Only when the light is on will you see the silhouette of the silk cut. When the lights are off only the white lampshade is visible

As with a lot of recent work my fascination with elaborate butterflies continues. In this one the butterflies float on wafting breezes.

My website has recently been updated so why not pop over and take a look.

Butterfly Creation

October was a month of upheaval as I moved my art studio out the apartment to a bigger place. Of course all kinds of complications arise and, as I sit here in the new studio, I realize that the tool I really need is still at home!

Adding to the confusion is a lack of internet access which means I haven’t been able to blog for quite a while.

Despite all that I've still managed a bit of silk paper cutting. Here is the latest piece called ‘Butterfly Creation’ (diameter 65cm). This first picture is of the work in progress - half cut. It took several weeks to cut as I could only work a couple of hours a day to avoid permanent damage to my eyes.

Here's the finished work hanging in an open space. At 65cm diameter it's pretty big. A giant swirl of butterflies swarm together riding thermals of air or clinging to each other. They seem unsure as to where to go next.

Why butterflies you ask? Taiwan, where I live and work, is famous for the sheer number of butterflies that can be seen...

... but to me they represent a fleeting moment in time. Their lives are short and yet they are incredibly tough despite their fragile nature. Their beauty is intoxicating as they waft along on breezes searching for food and mates.

I hope you enjoy them.