June 15, 2025

In light of current events, I think we could all use a little JoY right now. Come make a Mini JoY Banner to remind yourself to create joy in your own life; send it to a friend; or post what you create far and wide so that the entire world sees it. Of course you can create any letter/word combination that you wish. And hopefully, you will experience JoY while making these clever “letter pockets” at this free online community event. Please invite your friends to join us. I look forward to seeing you!

I enJoYed discovering these works on paper by Lyonel Feininger, a major figure of the Bauhaus. What began as sketches, woodcuts and hand-carved toys for his sons soon expanded into a large series of drawings and watercolours made for the private enjoyment of friends and family. He called them “ghosties,” “spooks,” “little people,” “grotesques,” “demons,” “pixies,” “Mysterious Petes” and other names.

Lyonel Feininger, Three Ghosties, c.1950. Pen and black ink, brush and watercolour and gold paint over charcoal on beige wove paper, 8.9 x 10.4 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. © Estate of Lyonel Feininger / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / CARCC, Ottawa, 2025 Photo: NGC

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Set aside 10 minutes to watch this installation unfold before your eyes. The Five Continents of All Our Desires by Joël Andrianomearisoa at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa, celebrated relations and connections. Watch the construction of the installation with black silk paper, as six large-scale sculptures form a suspended archipelago in a poetic reference to land masses and geographies of the imagination. 

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In the spirit of a true abstract expressionist, Mitchell represents himself on his own terms using the rarely executed medium of smoke even as he walks in the footsteps of Yves Klein and Claudio Parmiggiani, who both experimented with smoke. Unlike his predecessors, however, smoke has been his primary medium to date.

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Paper sculptures encounter otherworldly happenings in this animated short film. Shotaro Kitada and Hoji Tsuchiya  collaborated on a music video for a track called “Prime” from Japanese saxophonist Tamoaki Baba’s 2024 album, Electric Rider. Constructing a world of paper cutouts and sculptures, Kitada and Tsuchiya worked remotely to make the experimental short film, never meeting in person due to their geographic distance.

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Paper Tidbits

• Have you had a chance to listen to my interview with Marianne Guély on Paper Talk?
• Kelli Anderson has designed some cleverly paper engineered cardboard protest signs. Here’s one.
• I used her sentiments on my own protest sign for a peaceful rally here in Edwards, Colorado yesterday.