Rachael Ashe
Title: I Have Patterns on the Inside too Medium: Hand-cut Canson mi-teintes paper Date: 2020
Artist Statement:
I’ve created many self portraits over the years as an active photographer, in order to explore concepts, or to capture something I was struggling with. It was a creative outlet I made use of quite regularly to generate ideas. As I’ve transitioned away from photography over the past ten years, I regretfully left behind the art of the self portrait. For this submission I wanted to create a portrait of myself using the tools, skills, and style I’ve developed as a paper cut artist.
I chose a traditional silhouette as my starting point. These were once a popular and affordable way to produce a portrait in the mid-18th century, featuring a person’s head and shoulders in profile with a featureless interior cut from black card. My interpretation maintains the basic format of the head and shoulders silhouette but very much represents the current style of cut paper designs I create. Made from brightly coloured poppy red paper, with multiple patterns mixing together to play within a larger form. In this case, the form is the profile of my face. I feel it captures who I am and the things I love together in one piece.
Biography:
Rachael Ashe is a graduate of the Creative Photography program at Humber College, and is self-taught in paper-cutting and sculpting. She creates hand-cut artwork and installation from paper inspired by visual patterns found in nature, and influenced by textile design and production. Her work is an intersection of the disciplines of art, craft and design. She is attracted to techniques that involve repetitive action as a form of meditation and devotional labour. Rachael credits her former position as a photographer at the Textile Museum of Canada, and an extensive exposure to handcrafted textiles, as a major influence on her work with paper to this day. She has exhibited across Canada, the US, and the UK, as well as been published in Uppercase Magazine, and the books Design Genius, and Paper Play. Rachael lives and works in beautiful Vancouver, Canada.
