Personal Visions: The Passion of Paper, 2006
Wendy Cain
Artist Statement
One of the pivotal moments of my life was when I saw paper pulp being used as a painting medium. The amazement which I
experienced then still pulls me back into the studio again and again. The process is just unpredictable enough that it is a
constant challenge. It demands a partnership with the practioner, eliciting give and take, requiring a fine balance.
The alterations which occur from the time of making to the completion of the drying cylce are dramatic enough that this too
adds to the element of chance. Finally, the finished work is unlike other more traditional painting techniques as the material
and the image are so inextricably visually intertwined. I am still enamoured.
Susan Warner Keene
Artist Statement
For several years my work in fibre has concentrated on the membrane of the "page" as an expressive form. As a medium,
papermaking attracts me because of the congruity between the material aspects of the process and human physical concerns:
wetness, pressure, thickening, dessication - the paper undergoes these successive conditions. Responding to nature and circumstance,
he sheet of paper embodies experience, as we do. The ability of flax pulp in particular to develop high rates of shrinkage,
translucency, and surface texture makes possible a language that can speak of the effects of time and change.
At the same time, paper is culturally linked to ideas, language, and communication, crucial features of our humanity.
At the same time, paper is culturally linked to ideas, language, and communication, crucial features of our humanity.
I have often used the familiar layout of the folio -- two facing pages -- as a suggestive format for several series
of paper works concerning our desire to document and describe.
My work explores implications of embedding image and language within the paper, to give the "narrative" a material presence.
My work explores implications of embedding image and language within the paper, to give the "narrative" a material presence.
In earlier work the body and the codex form have been important. In recent pieces, I have given greater priority to text, allowing
words to form the entire structure. Here, the shapes and patterns of individual letters, words, and phrases dictate the physical form
of the "page" when inscribed in high shrinkage pulps. The result is a fretwork of language which
casts its shadow on the supporting wall.
This approach emerged from several overlapping areas of interest: in narrative as a kind of personal mapping; in the possibilities
This approach emerged from several overlapping areas of interest: in narrative as a kind of personal mapping; in the possibilities
of language as physical form; and in paper as the substance rather than the traditional substrate of a work of art. My objective with
this work was to explore the space between literal meaning and physical presence, to generate new forms from the shapes, rhythms,
and meanings of language as it encounters the physical nature of paper pulp.
Cathyrn Miller
Artist Statement
I have had a lifelong fascination with paper. I enjoy not only making it, but 'playing' with it to created unusual
3-dimensional structures. I consider to be not just a support material for other process, but an interesting thing in itself.
The sculptural possibilities appear to be limitless.
Gina Page
Artist Statement
What do I love about making paper? The mystery, the alchemy, the long and meandering process of selecting various fibres which relate to the text and images that the paper will eventually support, wondering how the fibres will interact with each other, thinking about the colours that the final sheets of paper may be, delighting in the soft muted tones that come from working with the natural fibres and dyes I've chosen, such as fine yellow silk threads, cedar and cherry barks, wisteria fibre and dyes from various found lichens of the BC Coast.
Carolyn Qualle
Artist Statement
I come to bookarts from a textile and printmaking background. I make paper as a support for a narrative medium;
drawing, stitching, text or printmaking. Sometimes the paper is the story. Papermaking is physical and tactile;
pleasurable labour which produces a profound satisfaction.