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