Pondering the Effect of Light Through Trees on the Summer Solstice

For the past three years, the primary focus of my art has been paper cutting. I made my first real papercut piece (meaning, I had a focused awareness of what I was making) in 2012 as a sample for an art lesson I was teaching. The captive fascination I have with the medium began long before that as a child in the rural woods of northern Pennsylvania. I haven't always known that consciously--certainly I couldn't have put those words in a single sentence. The realization happened recently, in a moment, as if it were a flash-back sequence in a movie. The memories played and fell into place as I read something I had written in a long abandoned sketchbook. Reading my words, scrawled in pencil under a watercolor sketch of a fiddlehead, I realized that I have always had an awareness of the power of negative space.

"The light filtering through the newly forming leaves creates "dapples" of light--little soft focus spots--creates a mystical and surreal atmosphere. The light is what makes the place so special the LIGHT is what makes you want to stop and stay." From a personal sketchbook, July 2004

My kindred medium was papercutting long before I knew it. The process of cutting the dense botanical designs I draw does nothing more than introduce light to the paper. The only thing more magical than the patterned shadows of light created by a papercut is the memory of morning light as it flickers--while the summer breeze gently dances with the trees.

Artwork details in order of appearance:

Wildflowers for Dyeing

Original drawing hand-cut from a single sheet of #80 white paper

Size: 9.5 x 6.5 inches

Butterfly Garden  

Wishing you warmth and light on this, the longest day of the year.

Lauren