About My Art

I have always had a love of drawing and that eventually led me to study Printmaking and Drawing in college. I enjoy the “mark-making” that is part of putting pencil to paper and I enjoy the combination of “creative” and “systematic” thinking that working in printmaking media requires.

Recently, I have become fascinated by the art of papercutting – and I enjoy how much a papercut looks like a block print. I have used papercutting as a replacement for making linocuts. I have even used the papercut as a printmaking “block” in order to pull relief prints directly from the papercut. I have heard these referred to as “cardcuts” by other artists.

I have made “multi-block” cardcuts in order to get multi-colored prints, but I usually just hand-color my prints with color pencils. It is a repetitive – and meditative – method, and anyone who has enjoyed a coloring book knows what I’m talking about.

Landscape has been a mainstay of my subject matter for as long as I can remember, but like any artist, I will wander off into other areas for a while. Japanese ukiyo-e prints have influenced some of my landscape style. I also really enjoy the artwork of Birger Sandzen, especially his printmaking. I have also made religious and liturgical artwork.

Please check back in the future, as I intend to eventually add more information below describing the details of how I make my artwork.

Printmaking

Currently, I am mostly making “cardcut” prints by making a papercut, rolling acrylic paint onto the papercut, and then running the cardcut through a printing press to transfer the paint to another piece of paper. I have made linoleum block prints, etchings, and lithographs in the past, but nothing beats papercuts for simplicity.

Papercuts

For most of my landscape papercuts (and prints, too) I use photos I have taken as references. I usually end up combining details from several photos together to create the final composition. Then I just draw out everything on white paper and cut it out by hand with a utility knife. I paint the paper with black acrylic paint and then glue it to another background paper. Sometimes the papercut is flat and sometimes I fold it into a “box-frame” form or create some type of wall-scroll hanging.

Religious & Liturgical Art

I have had the chance to make artwork for Saint John Paul II Catholic Church in Olathe, KS. I spend some time sketching, then I usually end up cutting a mock-up of each shape from black cardstock. I can move these around in order to the develop the composition. After that’s done, I will trace the shapes onto the final full size sheet of paper and then cut everything from that single sheet. I paint the paper with black acrylic paint and the glue it to a second background paper. For the “wall-scroll” style hangings, I build the crossbars and endcaps out of paper as well.

Crucifix, Artwork for Ambo

St. Cecilia, Artwork for Choir Area