Paper, we use it every day. It gets delivered to us in the form of bills, newspapers and
Peacock Placeholder. Designed by Scott Vogel of Papyrus Cutters.
magazines. Less often than we’d like we see it used to write letters or in the form of greeting cards. It is a common staple in the workplace from the printer to the fax to the notes we pretend to take in the office monthly meeting. Paper can be the placeholder of vital information, the keeper of secrets and the medium for art in many forms but can something as ordinary and commonplace as paper be art itself?
Beauty, a completely subjective attribute, can be found in the most unlikely of places. The remnants of an old barn, seemingly obtrusive drawings on a wall or even an improperly placed scar on the skin can hold beauty, oftentimes in ways we didn’t think about before. Society shapes our interpretations of beauty and molding these ideas has taken centuries. Ancient Greeks had an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
Illustration from Luca Pacioli's De Divina Proportione
The arts, mathematics and even beauty were sought after to be better understood.Through continual study they discovered the repetition of one ratio, this ratio proved to be aesthetically pleasing in the arts and came to be called “The Golden Ratio.” The Golden Ratio has been used to explain patterns in mathematics and geometry but the most salient idea of the ratio is that it proves beauty in the human face and body.
As modern humans we dwell on appearance, no matter our culture, and to go as far as having a ratio that can prove what is and isn’t beautiful can leave little left to deliberation. However we see every day that often times we are intrigued most by the uncommon. Humans function on memory, the more we can remember the less we need to decipher every day. We remember products with their logo or street names in directions as easily as remember categorically ugly features with beautiful ones. These memories help us navigate through the world more quickly. The less we have to stop and think the better. That is why the eye stops when it sees the uncommon. Our brains don’t know how to categorize what we have seen.
The unexpected use of paper as a form of art, not merely a medium, triggers our minds to stop, take everything in and then make a conscious decision about what we are looking at. This conundrum in the mind forces us to make our own decisions on beauty. When we are
Peacock Greeting Card. Designed by Scott Vogel of Papyrus Cutters.
forced to decide our own opinions on what is and isn’t beautiful, we then are pushing back on our learned thoughts, challenging our old beliefs and making way for new forms of the attractive. Papyrus Cutters aims to push you, to challenge the expected and to carve a path for new and unprecedented forms of art. Join Us.
