Paper Talk

By Helen Hiebert StudioArts Visual Arts

Paper Talk episodes

August 22, 2020 Béatrice Coron
Beatrice Coron is a French-born artist who has been living and working in NYC for more than 30 years. I met Beatrice at the Center For Book Arts in NYC when we both took classes and participated in events there in the 1990’s. We talk about how Beatrice developed her unique paper cutting style, which has gotten her everything from illustration gigs to public art commissions in other materials, based on her paper cuts. She discusses her favorite papers and cutting knife, and how she goes back and forth between hand cutting and design on the computer. A theme that seems consistent in her work is how one thing leads to another! Here’s an example: When a show at the museum of art and design inspired her, she contacted the curator, which led to her being a consultant on their exhibition Slashed! Under the Knife, a paper cut exhibition, and she was also an artist in residence during that show. Someone from Alliance Francais saw that show and since Beatrice is French, invited her to give a talk there, where whe met someone who invited her to give a TED talk! And the story keeps unfolding.
1 hr 3 min
August 01, 2020 Cathleen Baker
Cathleen Baker began her journey with paper as the paper conservator for the Courtauld Institute Galleries in London, when handling the old papers in the documents she was preserving sparked an interest in paper. Among many other interesting projects, Baker wrote the biography of Dard Hunter, which involved moving into his home in Chillicothe, Ohio (which his grandson now owns). Baker publishes her own work, along with award-winning books about the history and technologies of papermaking, printing, and bookbinding by others under her imprint, The Legacy Press. Enjoy our conversation! Continue reading Cathleen Baker
1 hr 12 min
July 10, 2020 Pamela Paulsrud
Pamela Paulsrud is a Chicago artist who began papermaking to examine and exploring the creative process from inception to completion. From the formation of sheets, to working with fibers in its various degrees, she was led to create spontaneous marks within the pulp, and the medium became an art unto itself and now offers her a multidisciplinary approach in her exploration of capturing sound, or resonance in paper with sound wave phenomena. We talk about the Treewhispers project that Pam and Marilyn Sward started in the year 2000 after Pam conceived of it on a bike ride (her daily practice) and where the project is today (it is still going strong). More than 7,000 paper rounds created by people from around the world feature stories, poems and imagery about trees. These disks are strung into tree-like forms for exhibition, and Pam tells me about the time Greenpeace contacted her, and how Treewhispers became an influential part of one of their activist campaigns to save a forest. Continue reading Pamela Paulsrud
1 hr 10 min
June 18, 2020 Pam Thorne
Pam Thorne lives in Burnie, Tasmania, on an island south of Australia. Pam is best known for creating, with her artistic partner Ruth Rees, a series of life size papier-mache sculptures which are displayed in numerous locations around Tasmania. Pam is the concept originator of paper on skin, a biennial wearable paper art competition, Gala Event and exhibition. In 2012 Pam was Burnie’s Citizen of the year. Continue reading Pam Thorne
1 hr 1 min
May 30, 2020 Douglass Howell, a Conversation with Elisabeth Howell King
Douglass Howell is probably the first person to have used hand papermaking as an artistic medium as early as the 1940’s, creating what he called Papetries which were shown at the Betty Parsons Gallery in NYC. Howell mentored several people, who went on to establish papermaking studios and paper programs at the university level. His daughter, Elisabeth Howell King, tells me about his life with paper. Continue reading Douglass Howell, a Conversation with Elisabeth Howell King
1 hr 10 min
May 07, 2020 Sarah Brayer
Sarah Brayer is an American artist living in Kyoto, Japan. I met Sarah back in the 1990’s, when she would come to make work at Dieu Donné Papermill, a hand papermaking studio in NYC where I was working. Sarah talks about how she traveled to Japan after studying art at Connecticut College and ended up making Kyoto her home. She works in printmaking and papermaking, and we discuss her early interest in Japanese covered door panels called fusuma. She ended up discovering Imadate, Echizen where they make these panels, and she has been creating her own large-scale poured-paper images there since 1986, and is the only western artist to do so. It was fascinating to hear Sarah talk about the nuances between working with Eastern and Western fibers – she talks about their personalities as well as their unique voice. Continue reading Sarah Brayer
38 min
April 16, 2020 Ioana Stoian
Today, I’m talking with Ioana Stoian, a british-born artist currently lives and works in Minneapolis. When I met Ioana there a few years ago, she gifted me a black t-shirt with the word ARTIST in white and all caps across the front. We began our conversation talking about self identifying as an artist – that was fun! Ioana got interested in hands-on learning during a five year decorative painting apprenticeship in France, and that interest led her to travel to Japan, where she discovered the art of paper folding. She was inspired to create her own designs, which she has published in a couple of books. You can read all about her books and watch Ioana read her latest children’s book, Always Be You, in the show notes. Enjoy our conversation! Continue reading Ioana Stoian
1 hr 18 min
March 28, 2020 Richard Flavin
Richard Flavin did the illustrations of Japanese papermaking in Tim Barrett’s book of the same title. Richard grew up in Boston, and he learned about woodblock printing and handmade paper when he was in the army in Korea and traveled to Japan, where he has lived and worked since 1970. We met to talk about his work with paper in the gallery that he and his textile artist wife Ryoko Haraguchi, run. Continue reading Richard Flavin
1 hr 2 min
March 05, 2020 Robbin Ami Silverberg
Robbin Silverberg is a paper and book artist in Brooklyn, NY. I have long admired Robbin’s content-rich artist’s books, that show off her unique papermaking techniques. We had a lovely meandering conversation about her first paper sculptures, how she started creating artist’s books while living in Vienna, Austria but didn’t even realize they were a genre. She returned to NYC when she discovered there were others making artists books – she’d found her tribe. Robbin currently has a 30-year retrospective at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and she took me on an audio tour, describing some of the works having to do with the book as an object, women, language, transformative reading and more. One fun fact: Robbin and I were on Sesame Street with a bunch of cute kids making paper in the mid-1990’s. Continue reading Robbin Ami Silverberg
1 hr 17 min
February 13, 2020 Michael LaFosse
Michael LaFosse runs Origamido studio outside of Boston with Richard Alexander. This is a really unique studio, because not only do they create, fold and teach unique origami techniques, but they also produce handmade papers designed specifically for folding and origami. Michael and I talk about how he discovered origami as a child, first learning to fold a paper airplane with his uncle, and then by chance seeing one episode of a black and white TV show about origami. We chat about how he developed his style and how he teaches beginner to master level origami at Origamido Studio, as well as in schools, where he often uses origami to teach math and geometry. Enjoy our conversation! Continue reading Michael LaFosse
1 hr 6 min