Paper art

As a letterpress artist, paper constitutes a rather important part of my livelihood. While I value its weight and texture, it is still merely a canvas for my creations. I find it rather interesting that the artists below have used the paper itself as their media, with rather awe-inspiring results.

British artist Richard Sweeney revels in the hands-on manipulation of everyday materials. Handling them, he can find new ways of interpreting the media while taking advantage of their intrinsic properties. While his explorations range widely in scale, they are all beautifully architectural.

Peter Callesen of Denmark is best known for creating paper art out of single A4 sheets, though he sometimes uses larger media. Callesen believes that the frailty of the paper underlines the tragic nature of the pieces, as does the fact that the sculptures are able to inhabit the space around them but without the possibility of escape from the sheet they have been cut.

Russian graphic designer Yulia Brodskaya constantly pushes herself to try new styles and media. Her passion however, remains constant, typography.


British artist, Su Blackwell creates eerily beautiful and delicate scenes out of book pages. Like Peter Callesen above, she explores the idea of her characters and scenes being bound to the books they have been cut out of. She instills a sense of urgency and fragility to the pieces, which is underlined by the destructive process by which the scenes are created.

Pratt alum, Kako Ueda has been "cutting paper" for the past five years. Her painstakingly elaborate pieces are simply breathtaking. She mainly deals with organic imagery: insects, animals and human bodies. Simultaneously morbid and beautiful, these large installations are an extrapolation from the kimono stencils of her native Japan.

Diana Sudyka

I met Chicago artist Diana Sudyka several years ago at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival. At the time, she was still sharing a booth with husband and talented artist, Jay Ryan, as part of The Bird Machine Studio. She has since graduated to her own booth, website and blog, and it's easy to see why.


Diana has been producing beautiful work for over twelve years. She's a full time illustrator creating fine art, book covers, album artwork and rock show posters. Most of her work is done as screen prints, watercolor and etchings.


Though all of her work is simply beautiful, her most interesting is perhaps the Tiny Aviary blog. As if her illustrations weren't enough to keep her creative appetite in check, Diana volunteers for the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History. She does taxidermy on birds "that for the most part, have met their ends colliding with downtown buildings". She then posts watercolors of the species she has worked on in her blog. You can purchase Diana's work through her website or her Etsy shop.

Akiko Taniguchi

Occurrence on the Surface, 2006

Back in 2004, when Matt and I both used to work in Pioneer Square in Seattle, we made it a habit to explore the numerous art galleries in the area after a quick lunch. Our favorite was Davidson Galleries. A few months before our August wedding, we came across the work of print artist Akiko Taniguchi while on one of said walks. We promptly fell in love with it and promised to "think about it", then proceeded to forget about it, or at least I did. When two weeks before the wedding Matt boasted of having the perfect present for me, I wracked my brains for what he could have found that would have him feeling so confident. With a sneaking suspicion, I walked to Davidson at lunchtime. I saw Cara (now the Director of Contemporary Prints at the gallery) marched over and started: "I don't know if you remember me but...". The guilty expression on her face said it all. I just told her I was going to pick out another print and that she need not betray my fiance's confidence. I just wanted her to to steer me in another direction if I happened to select the same one as him. She nodded reluctantly with her eyes locked on the floor. I didn't mind knowing, but found it rather funny instead. It wasn't her fault I know my husband so well.

This is the piece he got for me. It's an etching and collagraph called Mother Earth from an edition of 20. It reminded me of mitosis when I first saw it.


The piece I gifted Matt is Universe (or the Orange as we normally call it). It uses the same media and is also from an edition of 20.


Akiko uses quite a few different printing techniques, sometimes up to four on the same print. Aside from collagraph and etching, she also uses mezzotint, chine colle, dry point, and lithography, among others. Her editions are fairly small, from 10 to 30 prints. Her print sizes also range from about 4" x 4" to 24" x 36". Akiko doesn't seem to have a website but her work can be seen on quite a few online galleries, Davidson being one of the best. They have quite a selection of her work, ranging in price from $150 to $1000. Other galleries carrying her work are the LeVall Art Gallery in Novosibirsk, Russia, the Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary, and the Scott Gallery in Edmonton, Alberta where she currently resides.

Satellite, 2000

Kelly Tunstall

Back in 2002, my husband (boyfriend back then) and I took a little weekend trip to Portland, Oregon. Of course, no Portland visit is complete without a jaunt to Powell's City of Books. While browsing this bibliophile's paradise, we fell in love with an art piece at the Basil Hallward Art Gallery, located in the Pearl Room of the bookstore. It ended up being the first piece of art we ever purchased. Her name is Nipellina and she was painted by San Francisco artist, Kelly Tunstall. Perhaps our favorite aspect of the entire piece is the signature, which the artist saw fit to follow with the line, Age 23.



Ever since then, I have made it a point to visit Kelly's website on a somewhat regular basis to see what she's up to. Now Age 28, Kelly is still painting her ladies and recording her age with each one. I guess the signature makes sense when you learn that she uses her pieces as a sort of diary.







You can also see her work at the Hotel des Arts in San Franciso which features a number of "painted rooms" designed by San Francisco artists. Do keep in mind that reservations for these rooms have to be made over the phone, rather than online.