More Pictures from my Zion Trip

The picture above is of the antique shop in Scipio.  We love to stop here whenever we are around. The owners are very nice.

This is the second papercut that I have ever sold. I patterned it after an old snapshot of two girls in a park. I loved that they were both holding their toys over their shoulders.
This is  me in front of the St. George Art Museum just before we went in to see the show. If you are in St. George before the end of January, you should stop by and be edified by the art. You'll be glad that you did.
It is hard to see it, but my name is on this sign in the art museum. It was a thrill to see my name on it.

Trip to Zion

My husband and I left early Friday morning. Our goal was the opening reception of the "A Century of Sanctuary: The Art of Zion National Park" down at the St. George Art Museum where I had a papercut on display. This was my first juried art show, and there was no way that I was going to miss it. We left early so that we could easily meander and stop along the way before the opening started. That's the way we like to travel.

     The first place we stopped was the antique shop in Scipio. John has a hard time passing up antique shops, and he wanted to drop off some of his M0tortales books off. John told the owner that we were traveling through to St. George for the art show, and the owner curious about what papercuts are, asked to see one. I had happened to throw my binder of papercuts in the car before we left home, so I was able to show some to the owner and his wife. They were impressed and asked if they could buy one. You bet! This is the second time I have sold any.

    

   After that, we slowly made our way down south, stopping in Cedar City and Zion National Park. Look out for the gas pumps in Cedar City. We had problems with them twice on our trip.

    We finally made it to the St. George Art Museum shortly after the reception started. I was excited to be the one wear the name tag with "artist" on it this time instead of my husband. The museum was beautiful and complemented the wonderful art work along the walls. I finally found mine. I still don't know how I made it into this show filled with paintings done by professional artists. I think I might have been the only amateur there. I sure felt out classed. I enjoyed looking at the modern and historical art there. I wish that my grandfather, 

Calvin Fletcher, had been represented with the historical paintings. That would have added an extra nice touch in my mind. About half way through the reception came the speeches and presentation of the awards. The mayor of St. George and the Deputy Director of the National Park Service gave some of the speeches. The presentation went on for almost an hour. My legs got tired because we had to stand through the whole thing. I didn't win an award or purchase prize, but I got my name up on the wall. The whole thing was a new experience for me.

   We went back to Zion the next day. 

                                                                              

                                                            

Here are some pictures

This is the paper cut that I won my first ribbon at the county fair with. I designed it from an old snapshot  that I had bought at an antique show.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

This is the first papercut that I have ever sold. It is an illustration 

of Lucy seeing the lamp post for the first time in the book, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C. S. Lewis.  I really liked this one, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to sell it. I had put a  price on it that I thought it wouldn't sell for. I guess someone liked it more  than I thought they would.

  This the papercut that I sent to the Zion art show. The show is called "A Century of Sanctuary - The Art of Zion National Park". It will also include historical paintings of the park done over the last 100 years or so. It will include paintings by Thomas Moran and Maynard Dixon. It opens to the public on Monday August 25, 2008. My papercut is titled, "A Restful Interlude".

Melissa

Welcome

    Welcome everyone! The purpose of this blog is to document my adventures in the fabulous art of papercutting. Papercutting has been practiced in many parts of the world for thousands of years, but I am not here going to give a history. I doubt that I could do it justice. If you wish to know more, google the website of the Guild of American Papercutters. ( I would link that for you, but I haven't figured that out yet. Sorry.)  

   My adventure started about nine years ago, when I picked up a book on papercutting at our local library. I was intrigued by the strong lines and shapes created thru this medium. I have always been fascinated by things made from paper so this  looked like fun to try. The first papercuts I did were illustrations that I copied from children's books I found around the house. I cut them from construction paper and taped them to  the walls of the nursery that I was about to use for my first daughter. I made about 10 of them. It created a fun look to the room. The only problem I had with them was that the color faded quickly, and they had to be pulled down. (See photo above.)

    I didn't a whole lot a papercuts in the years following as the kids kept me too busy, but every once in a while I would sit down and cut a small picture here and there that I could use in a scrapbook or journal. It wasn't until last year that I was able to really delve into the art. Over the last couple of years I hadn't been to impressed by the quality of art work at our county fair, so I thought that maybe I could enter some artwork and manage  to get a ribbon. I have never gotten a ribbon for my art before, and I thought that here was my chance. I looked around my old snapshots and found one that I thought would make a good papercut, and then I took it to the fair. Not only did I get a ribbon, but it was a " best in class" ribbon. That might sound like bragging, but really I had very little competition in the mixed media class. I was excited though, and it motivated me to do more. 

   In January, I did several things to move me into a more active pursuit. First, I joined the Guild of American Papercutters in order to keep inspired to try more cuttings. Second, I let my husband talk me into entering a juried art show in St. George, Utah. The show would be celebrating the 100th anniversary of Zion National Park. Again, I went to my snapshots. This time I used 2 shots that I had taken at Zion the last fall. I did not expect to get into the show, but I thought I would try anyway. Imagine my surprise, when about three weeks later, I received a letter from the St. George Art Museum saying that my cut was one of 68 paintings out of some 500 entries that was accepted into the show. I was in shock! I really hadn't thought that it was good enough. I was an amateur  competing against a bunch of professional oil and watercolor artists. I went out and got it professionally framed right away. I felt like I went one step further in May when I sold my first papercut to someone besides my mom

     Tomorrow my and husband and I are traveling down to St. George to go to the artists' opening reception tomorrow  night. I am so excited. This will be a new experience for me. I am at a place where I never thought I would be, but I find that I like it. The art show will be at the St. George Art  Museum until the end of January, and then  it will travel around the country into 2010.

      I am still trying to figure out how to do things on my blog, so I am sorry that I don't have more pictures. Once I have it figured it out, I will include some pictures of the papercuts that I have done. Thanks for reading.

Melissa