Zen Art: Paper Cut Maps

Do-Something-Everyday, June 10, 2016

I am reposting this post from a while ago.

I spent this weekend working on my paper cutting skills. One does not normally associate cutting and knife with meditation. Yet, as one spends hours and hours cutting away thin slice after thin slice of paper, one enters the same state of mindfulness and stillness that a deep meditation produces. The effect of creating the lacy concoction above was just about the same as that of thirty minutes of meditation--freeing and relaxing.

For this project, I got a nice vintage map of Rome from the Graphics Fairy. The map was in color and came with a legend. I wanted to keep both, so I did the cut on the right side. If you look carefully, you will see the Coliseum on the bottom right and St. Peter's Basilica on the top left. I used an Exacto knife with a small blade to make the tiny cuts. To add a personal touch, I added the little message at the top.

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Do- Something- Everyday: Cut Paper Art Flora

Do-Something-Everyday: April 26, 2016

Cut paper art is something that I have always liked. In the past, I had confined myself to cutting maps. A few days ago, I picked up a book called The Art of Papercutting by Jessica Palmer. This book has inspired me to move  up my papercutting skills a notch or so.  The top picture is an original mixed media which I then made into a papercut. The one below is a watercolor painting of a tulip. After cutting it into shape, I mounted it on a bright yellow paper.