Without Erasers

For the second year in a row I was asked to do the decorations for the Orion Magazine holiday party. (Yay!) I had a large stack of handmade paper lying around, waiting to be given a new life, so I decided I would use it as my primary artistic medium. With no real plan in mind, I began by cutting with scissors and was continually displeased with my results... Finally I got out an exacto knife and started drawing with it as I would my favorite bamboo pen. Below are the results!

I do most of my work by freehand. I remember as a child watching people older than me just pick up a pen and begin drawing a lifelike image... I wanted to have that ability. I drew like a maniac and my mom tells me we went through boxes of reams of paper. When I was in high school I remember making the decision not to use erasers. I realized if I relied too much on the use of them, I wasn't making as much of an effort to translate what I saw in the three-dimensional world into the two-dimensional one.

...Owl in a tree...

A grebe!

Bird in the top...

...of the tree...

...bear hibernating in the bottom!

Mr. Fox

Great Horned Owl

Detail of planetary mobile...

...in the circular library.

Owl on a jar lantern...

I've discovered I want to live my life without an eraser. We often wish we could go back in time and fix mistakes we've made, but no matter what cannot do so... However we can take what we've learned from these experiences and carry that knowledge with us into the future.