The process of papercutting is a method of emotional processing. Using a blade to cut, extracting paper from paper, I connect feelings to thoughts. The images left behind are imbued with imperfections; marks of a precise tool in imprecise human hands.    

Finished art is often thought of as separate from its own creation. But this is deceiving.  The creative process, from spark to maturation to completion, is as much a life journey as that of the artist: encompassing birth, growth, chance, and death - all chained to the relentless flow of time.  

Beauty Lies Between My Palm and Death begins my own exploration of this multifaceted microcosm by considering elements of my creative process: introspection, influence, inspiration, interpolation, and time. Far from aiming to reduce the creative process to mere discrete steps, I seek to acknowledge that the process is just as beautiful as the finished piece itself - or may even be the heart of where the beauty of the piece lies. Through this lens, it became important for me to consider my relationship to each of these aspects separately, as well as how they resolve into a whole - what can they tell me about my conflicted relationship with beauty and time?

These papercuts are sketches: first attempts at understanding forces and structures deep inside myself. Does my own beauty reside in what I create? How does beauty function as a tool to build connection or to conceal something more honest? And how does this work reflect my preoccupation with time - each a measure of the limited lifespan I have to create? What are these works without me - and I without them?  This exhibit exists as a first attempt to document these questions from which I expect no answers.