Art Blog » September 2006

Dancing Penguin

This inkblot-lookin’ penguin was inspired by a photograph of Mary Schwalm (as are a number of my other pieces). I nearly destroyed this piece because when I first designed it I didn’t have the white part of the face connected to anything — it was completely surrounded by emptiness! Luckily, I found my mistake before making the final cut.

See the whole thing here.

Missing Spots

I was inspired to do this papercut of a giraffe (or, rather, do this papercut of the spots of a giraffe!) after seeing one of the photographs from Mary Schwalm’s most recent photo week.

See the complete papercut here.
 

Double-Headed Eagle

This small papercut features the two-headed eagle (often seen in Eastern European Jewish papercuts and other ritual art) and the word “Mizrach” which is the Hebrew word for ‘east’ and is often in art placed on the eastern wall of a house. I have always wondered what the Mizrach was about, and now that I’m preparing to teach a class on Jewish papercuts, I figured I better learn! This papercut was really just an excuse to do the double-headed eagle.

See the complete piece here.

Buffalo on the Prarie

Last weekend, when I went to the American Museum of Natural History, I had a sit-down (much to the excitement of the masses of schoolkids wandering through the building) to do this painting of these taxidermied Bison. It was a challenge to do a small watercolor painting of such a large visual, especially with the distractions of the museum around. I find this one quite a success.

Drawings from Lifelike Death

I took a trip to the American Museum of Natural History this past weekend and did some drawings from death of these taxidermied animals from Africa. There’s an elephant, a rhino, and a water buffalo.

See all three here.

For My Sake …

This papercut is based on the same phrase as a papercut from earlier this summer. Both are inspired by a Hasidic teaching, that all persons should have two pieces of paper, one in each pocket. On one is written “On my behalf was the whole world created” (Mishnah of Sanhedrin 4:5) and on the other “I am but dust and ashes.” (Gen. 18:2). The idea here was to put the first sentence above the earth, trees, and sky, the the second phrase underneath the earth, shown here in strata. Click here for the complete image.