The titles alone scream chaos: Tsunami, Office Tornado, Power Plant, Childhood Torture, Atomic Jellyfish, Butterflies and Grenades, Not Mary Poppins. The degree of detail and precision in Bovey Lee’s paper cuts counter the chaos and speak to complete control over material and subject matter.
The scenes are haunting and thought provoking. Gossamer webs of paper standing ready to remind us of how fragile life is…and how strong we are. Hong Kong born Lee holds MFA’s from both the University of California at Berkeley (painting) and Pratt University in Brooklyn New York (digital arts). Her work is rooted in history, yet it is today’s technology that allows her to fully explore this ancient folk art.
Tsunami II and detail, cut rice paper, 27″ x 36.5″
Power Plant I and detail, rice paper, 40″ x 27″
Lee sketches out ideas and makes a digital template on the computer using photographs, scanned images and vector graphics. The template is printed and used as a general guideline for the paper cut and the artist often leaves areas of the template blank for improvisation. Placing the template either above or below a sheet of rice paper, she then hand cuts each design with an exacto knife. Patience. Practice. Perfect.
The paper cutting artists like Bovey Lee remind me of the dedicated lacemakers with the time and detail required for their work. Maybe technology helps with paper cutting arts today, but still it is great that in a time when everything moves so fast, we still have some artists who have so much patience and attention to detail.