Lynn SUres

Helen Hiebert Studio

Episode #137: Radical Paper

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You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast on Apple Podcasts (or find more listening options on Spotify) so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.

Helen Frankenthaler, assisted by Kenneth Tyler, spooning colored paper pulp during the production of Freefall at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Mount Kisco, NY, 1992. Gift of Kenneth Tyler, 2002, Photo: Marabeth Cohen-Tyler

Although handmade papers have been employed by artists for centuries, the use of handmade paper and colored paper pulp as an integral element in creating art – as opposed to serving only as the surface on which art is created – has seen remarkable development over the last 70 years. As early practitioners like Douglas Morse Howell, Laurence Barker, and Kenneth Tyler mapped out new directions in using colored paper pulp, their work inspired the careers of generations of artists who have taken this medium in fresh and unexpected directions.

Peter Sowiski, Weapon/Worship-AH-64 Apache, 2022, Abaca, kozo, pigmented pulps
36 x 48 in / 92 x 122 cm (diptych). Photo: Biff Henrich, IMG_INK

This foundational book – the first of its kind – features 73 artist innovators whose work, grounded in the common medium of paper and pulp, takes flight through an array of applications, modalities, and techniques, from the pictorial to the structural, representational to abstract, two- and three- dimensional, spanning the meditative to the mercurial.

Ken Polinskie at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Silver Spring, MD, holding a Bozwald cast paper prototype, 1994. Courtesy of Pyramid Atlantic

 

Will Cotton, Urania (detail), 2013. Cast pigmented cotton, 25.5 x 13 x 13 in / 65 x 33 x 33 cm. Head Collaborators: Ruth Lingen, Akemi Martin and Emily Chaplain. Photo courtesy of the Artist and Pace Prints.

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Lynn Sures’ and Michelle Samour’s recommendations:

We talked about several collaborative studios, and they are all profiled in the book. Here are two:

• Dieu Donné
• STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery

Purchase the book:

• Oak Knoll Books

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You can find out more about Lynn Sures here and Michelle Samour here.

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Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.

Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. He practices and refines his skills in audio production while making his own podcast I’ll Have a Beer and Talk, a show about tech news, culture, weird animal stories and of course, beer. Gary is also the Deckle in Pulp & Deckle, a Portland-based community hand papermaking studio.

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