As regular art fans to my blog have probably figured out by now, I am fascinated by what artists can do with something as everyday in usage as paper. I've featured the best examples of quilling, origami, sculpting,and cutouts.
What you may not know is how fascinated I've been since high school art class where I first saw Malevich's painting of "Suprematist Composition: White on White" (1918). It seemed to give permission to create using only tonal paints.
You can imagine how drawn I am to the magic of the combination of tones and paper into all its artistic forms. An artist, who combines these elements with sculpturing, is Richard Sweeney (1984-)
Sweeney's art reflects his interest in nature's organic forms and growth patterns. His primary tools are: paper, ruler, cutter and glue - although sometimes he pleats the paper instead of using glue.
Since his primary inspiration is in the outdoors, he explains his manner of "seeing" this way:
“I like to go out walking in the countryside, so there is plenty to see there that influences me—birds in flight, streams, and rivers, cloud formations—so I’ll make sketches and take photographs and let that guide my sculptural work. I don’t usually work with a particular form in mind,” he says, noting that each sculpture often takes multiple weeks to complete.
Sweeney regularly conducts workshops teaching his techniques and also has a book titled, "Paper Sculpture."
One last thing: The pleated paper has been the basis for a permanent outdoor sculpture. Naturally, paper had to be replaced with something more weather resistant. Next week, the process will unfold in photos from paper to what you see below.
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