Free Cut Paper Art template / A gift for new teachers

The excitement of school has started in most of the US. Teachers have been busy getting their classrooms prepared for bright and eager minds. School floors have been waxed, the grass has been cut, it is time for school!

Here in Virginia, school hasn't started just yet and won't start until after Labor Day. I go back the week before and am excited to get back into the swing of things. I am not sure if I will assist the Pre-Kindergarten class or the Kindergarten class this year, either way I can't wait.

Since it is back to school season I created a cool paper cut art template for your child's new teacher(s)! Who doesn't love a heart felt gift from their students and parents!

This template says: "A good teacher is like a candle. It consumes itself to light the way for others." by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.  The art is 8 x 10 and will frame nicely!

*Updated*

Please remember:

You can download the template for personal use only... and see how well you do with paper cut art! Free templates will be posted on the last Tuesday of each month. 


It is a jpg but you should be able to download by right clicking on the art and copying it to your desktop.

Please comment below on how you liked the template or use hashtag #WCTemplate and @WashingtonCuts on Instagram to show off  your skills!

Thanks!

Ways to honor a family member - My brother's story

I did a quick paper cut of my brother. Took me about 1.5 hours to draw and cut the paper. He use to model when was younger and he played the trumpet in high school.

I like this picture because of the great details in the jacket and the trumpet. It is a good reflection of how happy he was, how vibrant and exciting my brothers life was at the time.

My brother is a stage 4 cancer surviver. He found out he had cancer when he was in his late 40's. Getting that news really put him in a depression. By the grace of God he was able to get through his treatments and surgeries successfully. It has been a long process but he proudly tells others his story and offers help to those dealing with cancer. I am honored to design and cut this cut paper art gift for him.

Inspiration Tuesday - Bruce Lee Life Lessons Quotes

 I grew up a huge Bruce Lee fan in my younger days. I had a statute and several posters of him in college. So for today's Tuesday inspiration I go to Bruce Lee for a very simple lesson that I need to learn as an artist.

As an paper cutting artist you have to create your own opportunities, it's the best way to succeed. Sitting around waiting for something to fall in your lap or for someone to find your art won't work all of the time. So here are some ways to do that. 

*Talking to people about what you do (frequently)

*Expressing yourself creatively on social media (daily)

*Creating / Thinking outside "the box" 

*Looking for inspiration in strange places

*Experimenting with new mediums

*Collaborating with others

*Letting your style evolve 

*Reinventing yourself

Find other quotes with a great explanation at the: www.positivityblog.com

Quotes found in the video are:

1. Have Faith in Yourself

2. Don’t Think Feel

 3. Styles tend to, not only separate man

 4. I think of myself as a human being

5. Be Like Water my Friend

What are some other ways to create opportunities for yourself as an artist? What has worked for you?

Cut Paper Art letters - Mud Cloth Patterns

I am thinking of designing a paper cutting art letter series. There are other paper cutting artist that create beautiful paper cut letters like  Suzy Taylor and Rachel Ashe.


My inspiration will come from African mud cloth patterns. I am drawn to the geometric patterns like stripes, dots, triangles and swirls. I am currently working on a pattern that will be different in each letter but have the same feel.

I found this wonderful post at Design Sponge that give the history of mud cloth in case you are interested and they have a link to a site that allows you to create your own virtual mud cloth design.

Enjoy!

Cut Paper Art Silhouettes - Zora Neal Hurston

I am working on a paper cutting silhouette series that will include prominent black artists, writers, poets, speakers, leaders, etc. When I created the poets silhouettes (see here) I wasn't even thinking of doing a series. Over time I realized that people use quotes from famous people to encourage and to uplift them. This is what I want my art to do for people. I got a lot of interest in the first two, so I decided to design a couple more. 

My next two will be Zora Neal Hurston and Ralph Ellison. I am using the bold portion from Zora's essay:

AT CERTAIN TIMES I have no race, I am me. When I set my hat at a certain angle and saunter down Seventh Avenue, Harlem City, feeling as snooty as the lions in front of the Forty?Second Street Library, for instance. So far as my feelings are concerned, Peggy Hopkins Joyce on the Boule Mich with her gorgeous raiment, stately carriage, knees knocking together in a most aristocratic manner, has nothing on me. The cosmic Zora emerges. I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads.
I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries. My country, right or wrong.
Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.

 -Zora Neale Hurston, "How it Feels to Be Colored Me"

This essay speaks to me because I live in a time where black beauty is being shunned even more by the norm but there are movements on the rise that state #blacklivesmatter #blackgirlrock #blackoutday. These movement are necessary like when James Brown declared, "I am black and I am proud." It helped foster the winds of change for African Americans, to be proud of who they are and where they come from. If we as a people aren't proud, no one is going to proud for us. African Americans are still being greatly discriminated against but how Zora beautifully puts it... "It merely astonishes me. How can they deny themselves the pleasure of my company."

How can they?...

( I will update with pictures soon.)

Zora Neal Hurston

Inspiration Tuesday - Creativity and Self Doubt

Lately, I have contemplating about being an artist.What is an artist?  Am I an artist? Do I have a voice? Is is being heard? I have a lot of questions that I am working through.

When I started drawing in high school, I was not the best. I enjoyed the challenge of creating and sketched daily.  I didn't have anyone telling me what I was doing was wrong. That my figures weren't proportional, my lines weren't straight, my shading was on the wrong sides, but I felt like an artist... I loved my work.

Until, I started showing others my artwork. Adults... Grownups... I got responses like, "That's nice but....."  "Have you seen (enter another artist's name here) work? They are so talented. "

All I could do was to mumble, thanks... This is when self doubt crept in.

Self doubt stayed with me through college as I tried to understand my art classes and what my teachers were instructing me to do. I loathed being criticized by my classmates and teachers. I barely got through art school. In my fashion design classes my fashion drawings were never skinny enough, never sexy enough, never bold enough.  I could never get a handle on gouache. I hated figure drawing. I tried to make my teachers happy so I could just pass the class and graduate.

Self doubt hung around until I had a break through as an 30 year adult in graduate school. I got to a point where I learned to take criticism. I had to, I was in a career where criticism happened a lot. I learned to dissect peoples words. I learned to find my own voice through the many other voices. I learned to stand and stop letting others define who I was... as an artist.. as a fashion designer.. as a human.

I did so much better in graduate school. I believed in myself. There was still heavy criticism in my classes but I could take it now. I could also say, I don't agree... or thank you I will take that into consideration. I could go home and breathe better. I still wasn't the best and wasn't highly favored but I didn't care. I came to an understanding that everyone has opinions but that doesn't mean that they are right.  

Right now, I am venturing out as an artist, creating paper cuts and silhouettes. An art form that I didn't learn in school, an art form where I am self taught. Right now, I own my own business. I am self taught in this also. I am coming to grips with the questions in my mind. I am learning to answer them in my own time while remembering not to participate in self doubt.

 Self doubt will destroy all that you work for, it will cripple you and weaken you. I've got to much too do and too much to say for this to happen.

I have to keep on being... being an artist, being me.

How do you get past self doubt as an artist?

Free Cut Paper Art Template / Summer Time

Summer is my favorite season!  I love that there are lots of fun activities, I am on summer break, vacationing, hanging at the beach, relaxing with family, connecting at family reunions, lounging and just being lazy. 

What fun things do you like to do in the summer?

I took some of my wonderful free time and designed a fun Summer Time paper cut art for your pleasure! Take time to unwind, get out your craft blade, colorful paper and take your time cutting this summer time paper cut template. I made it legal paper size but you can increase or decrease the design size to meet your needs. If you have time add colored paper to the summer icons to make it even more fun!

*Updated*

Please remember:

You can download the template for personal use only... and see how well you do with paper cut art! Free templates will be posted on the last Tuesday of each month. 


It is a jpg but you should be able to download by right clicking on the art and copying it to your desktop.

Please comment below on how you liked the template or use hashtag #WCTemplate and @WashingtonCuts on Instagram to show off  your skills!