Heather P.N. Richardson
Kitestrings
A series of small-scale, abstractions created entirely out of cut paper.
As a printmaker, I love to explore new techniques. I often cut intricate paper designs, either to use as stencils for inking, or to attach to prints as chine colle' elements (a collage process). Recently, I began to see these cut paper pieces themselves as a beautiful and shorthand way of expressing my ideas; as their own little "prints."
This collection of cut paper prints started out as illustrations for a poem that I wrote during a trip from Boulder to Moab, Utah. As I got further into making them, however, I realized that they had become a kind of self-portrait.
I once told someone, who asked what I did professionally, that I untangle kite strings all day. Each day ends with the accomplished feeling of a job well done. Each day begins with re-tangled strings. In this series, I'm exploring my life in this way... following a string to its end, not knowing where it will lead. Then when I think I've finally reached the end, I discover it's just the beginning of another string. Often, the strings, rather than being linear, bring me back to the same spot... like returning home from a trip; Boulder to Moab to Boulder again. But the path is not so much a circle as it is a spiral. The place to which I return looks the same, but even a millimeter or centimeter of change in myself is enough to make the circle incomplete - to start a new loop on my spiral path, and to give a sense of depth and perspective to my journey.
Each one of these prints is an individual string in my personal journey. While connected to what came before and what will come after, each one stands alone as its own exploration.
