I saw some of Jen Stark's impressive paper sculptures at Johannson Projects gallery in Oakland. I had seen an image of her work on the inviation card for the show and immediately felt that I needed to see it up close to believe and understand what was going on. Was it really just a stack of paper into which she had cut systemmatical and then bend the paper corners up? And yes, thats exactly what she does. It's simple, but genius. This type of paper cutting is very different compared to the traditional, folk art type that I am usually in love with. For starters Jen's stuff is abstract and colourful, actually bursts of color! The traditional paper cuttings are mostly figurative (or invove at least patterns) and black. I enjoy the aspect of dimensionality she brings to her work and that reminds me of japanese origami. On her web site is a video, where she talks about how she got started, which was on a trip to Europe and she didn't have her art supplies with her. She bought a stack of cheap colourful papers and a pair of scissors and started experimenting.
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