Chie Hitotsuyama: Sculpting from Old Newspapers!

 

 

It never ceases to amaze me how artists can find art media in the humblest, most common of materials. This blog is about an artist who makes wonderful animal sculptures from tightly rolled newspaper strips. Her name is Chie Hitotsuyama (1982-) As a child, her family ran a paper mill and she was quite familiar with paper processing. 

 

 After graduating with a degree in design, Hitotsuyama began her artistic career as a two-dimensional illustrator. In time, she began to follow her interest in sculpture. She was so familiar with the way her family turned old or discarded newspapers into strips. That inspired her to take it a step further and and roll the strips into "strings."

Hitotsuyama figured out that by  bending and contouring the strings, the strings begin to take on the shape or form of an animal she had sketched. Her first completed newspaper-string figure was of a rhino.She would continue to build animals, including groupings, such as monkeys and walrus.

 

She finds so much inspiration in animal sculptures, to quote: "... I have continued to sculpt forms of animals and while doing so I have become acutely aware of the life force in all beings. I admire the animals I study. I am in awe of their strength and survival in unforgiving nature.”

Below more of her finished animals. Do you have a favorite?

(You can view her processes in online videos.)