Cutting Edge

For all of those in Idaho who get the newspaper and actually read it, you may have noticed an article in the Scene section today about the exhibit, Cutting Edge.   That reminded me that I went to the opening a few weeks ago and had wanted to write about it here.  But I forgot to get the artists' names.

I think this is one of the best exhibits I've seen in Boise in a while.  I am probably biased because I really like paper cuts.  Only some of the pieces were what you might consider the traditional paper cut.  The others explored using cut paper in different ways.

These first two pictures are artwork made by Beatrice Coron.  They are made with Tyvek, a sturdy non-tearable, easy-to-cut material made by DuPont which is used in construction, in envelops and other applications.  Coron's pieces are narrative and intricately detailed.  I enjoyed discovering the different scenes within each piece.  The small scale really draws the viewer into the piece and Coron's world.

The next photo is a woodcut, I believe.  This confused me a bit as it wasn't cut paper.  But the title of the show is Cutting Edge: Contemporary Paper.  I can see that carving the wood could be the "cutting edge" and it is printed on paper.  I'm sorry I don't have the artist's name for this piece (but you will go to the show and find out, right?).

One of the things that attracted me to this artwork is that all those white marks inside the circle look like hand stitches to me.  The concept of this piece is the viewer is in the bottom of a well and looking up toward the light.  A companion piece showed the view as if looking down into a well from above, a reversal of the other. The visual texture of these pieces is amazing.

This last picture is just a small section of an artwork by my friend, Amy Nack, called Whitewater.  She created six paper circles, each with a different pattern of cutting, that hang away from the wall.  By creating that space, Amy created extra depth - physical and visual, by allowing the viewer to see the shadows cast on the walls.

These are just a few of the artists and ways they used paper as a medium.  If you are in Boise, it is worth your time and effort to go see the show.  It is at the Hemenway Center on the BSU campus and is open until March 23rd.