Paper or Oilcloth and Scissors, working with Place

1970’s. A little girl, a pair of scissors, a big, blank scrapbook, and a new Sears catalog. A once-a-year advertisement, that catalog was something special! We didn’t DARE cut anything until both mom and dad had looked through it enough to their liking. It had perfect pictures of the prettiest things. Clothes. Toys. Mom encouraged me to cut out my favorites for keeping. And so began my scrapbooking; with acid tape that turned my cutout dreams mustard yellow over time and left them free-floating in the pages. I LOVE cutting and pasting. Keeping, cutting in triangles, or squares, or circles, and taping on a blank page where I could look at it and maybe manifest it someday. Dreaming of what the future could be. It wasn’t until I was older that I started to look at where I was and make art about that.

My Paper & Scissors art form began when I lived in Olympia, Washington. Late 1990’s. I’d had dioramas in my mind since 5th grade. We studied baboons and made dioramas of their habitat out of cut paper in shoe boxes. I have no idea what ever happened to that box…anyway, it had been on my mind so long that when I started taking pictures of the architecture in town, I began to recreate them out of paper. It’s all about the windows. And the doors. And the details…

“I Love Cheetwoot” series

I used to live here. Cats. Christmas. Sushi. Finished papercut-private collection

Journal writing and pre-Doane’s Oyster House

Doane’s Oyster House. This building no longer exists. It used to be on 5th street, downtown. It was a very popular place to eat oysters and meet about politics.

Photograph of Doane’s Oyster House from the Washington State Archives. 5th and Washington.

I used to buy books and rent movies here. Carnegie Library. This building has been many entities. 7th and Franklin

I used to work here. The State Theater. This building used to be the local movie house. It has been home to Harlequin Productions for two decades. 4th Ave.

Hotel Olympian and Procession of the species glide by

I used to walk in this park. Tree at Sylvester Park-cut down summer of 2012

Olympia SafePlace Hand Cut Paper Art — Finished papercut-private collection

BuyOlympia headquarters, where I used to sell my bags. Columbia Street

Working at the State Archives led me to discover history and photographs of demolished buildings. As I watched Olympia destroy some of her older buildings, I wanted to capture what I could in photographs for posterity. I encourage you to explore your state, or country Archives, they are available for you. There are millions of untold forgotten stories. What will you discover?