"It's so interesting...
... what comes out of black paper."
Liz Essley
Issue date: 11/19/09 Section: Arts
The silver-haired artist flipped through her book of hundreds of paper-cuttings, intricate shapes framed with only a pencil, paper and scissors.
Page after page revealed different designs: flowers, dwarfs, birds, a bride and groom, a spider web.
"You can do anything. What you can draw you can cut," she said.
Gudrun Gilbert began cutting these images as a teenager. She learned her craft at her convent school in Germany.
"It fascinated me so much that I did it through all my life," she said.
Gilbert, wife of college historian Arlan Gilbert, has cut everything from wedding invitations to birth announcements to the eagle that hangs in Dean of Women Diane Philipp's office. She also crafted the image of the woman and child that marks the stationery and sign of Alpha Omega Women's Center.
"It's always a challenge, and then what comes out is really satisfying," she said.
Gilbert said she starts with a drawing, sometimes borrowing books from the library to find images of birds or butterflies Because cutting is an exact science, she must draw the image perfectly.
"The painter has the freedom to do a little bit with the brush to make it look right. But if it's cut wrong, it's messed up," she said.
She's discarded her first two attempts at her current paper-cutting project, Central Hall.
She sells cards through a local artists' organization, ArtWorks, but said she doesn't get many orders for special cuttings these days.
"Gosh, people don't know how to eat right now. So who wants art?" she said.
She does, however, faithfully attend the biannual convention of the The Guild of American Papercutters. She says the organization has about 400 to 500 members from across the globe, all with different paper-cutting styles.
Gilbert said the Chinese began cutting paper in the third century B.C., and the French made it popular again in the 1700s. French finance minister Etienne de Silhouette gave his name to the most famous form of paper-cutting.
Page after page revealed different designs: flowers, dwarfs, birds, a bride and groom, a spider web.
"You can do anything. What you can draw you can cut," she said.
Gudrun Gilbert began cutting these images as a teenager. She learned her craft at her convent school in Germany.
"It fascinated me so much that I did it through all my life," she said.
Gilbert, wife of college historian Arlan Gilbert, has cut everything from wedding invitations to birth announcements to the eagle that hangs in Dean of Women Diane Philipp's office. She also crafted the image of the woman and child that marks the stationery and sign of Alpha Omega Women's Center.
"It's always a challenge, and then what comes out is really satisfying," she said.
Gilbert said she starts with a drawing, sometimes borrowing books from the library to find images of birds or butterflies Because cutting is an exact science, she must draw the image perfectly.
"The painter has the freedom to do a little bit with the brush to make it look right. But if it's cut wrong, it's messed up," she said.
She's discarded her first two attempts at her current paper-cutting project, Central Hall.
She sells cards through a local artists' organization, ArtWorks, but said she doesn't get many orders for special cuttings these days.
"Gosh, people don't know how to eat right now. So who wants art?" she said.
She does, however, faithfully attend the biannual convention of the The Guild of American Papercutters. She says the organization has about 400 to 500 members from across the globe, all with different paper-cutting styles.
Gilbert said the Chinese began cutting paper in the third century B.C., and the French made it popular again in the 1700s. French finance minister Etienne de Silhouette gave his name to the most famous form of paper-cutting.
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