While I am making the paper cuts I have to keep holding them up to the light to check how the image is progressing and that I am getting the balance right. I hold them at different angles in the bright sunlight and the shadows cast are always so delicious. They are fleeting and actually need very strong light to be made. They are intangible - disappearing like a will o' the wisp as soon as a cloud passes over and of course not appearing at all on a cloudy day. Its easy to see them as metaphors for experiences in our lives, both happy and sad. It's the playing with light that keeps me grabbing moments on a sunny day, but also having in my head the idea that the shadows have a deeper meaning. And seeing the shadows sets up a stream of creative thinking...it make me question whether I want the pieces to be much more sculptural rather than flat mounted, to be set in 3d boxes so you can see them all round... or hanging in space like a mobile so that air interacts with them too or to photograph them too to capture that exact moment....or, or, or.... the ideas come piling over each other like kids rolling down a hill. It's very exciting and a joy to feel my brain synapses sparking.
Here are a few of the shadows that I have captured in a few sunny moments in the morning in my front room on a simple day. Radio 4 was in the back ground, washing machine whirring in the kitchen and a cup of tea getting cold while I played with the light.
Have a look too at
Steve Rood's Shadowmaking machines. I think they are fantastic and I love the sculptural feel of them. Here is one of them...
His work can be seen at: http://www.shadowmakingmachines.com/
