Paper Magic of Nikki McClure

Nikki McClure is a magician with paper. Her artwork at first might appear to be silkscreen or maybe even pen and ink or painting but when you realize that her work is all painstakingly cut out of paper with an x-acto knife suddenly it is far more intricate.

Like her images which depict the simplicity of hard work in an everyday life, the labour intensive technique she uses result in simply beautiful images. The minimal palette reinforces the idea of single moments of time like perfectly preserved memories.

Many of the images are of regular, even mundae items or moments that we might take for granted or otherwise be overlooked or dismissed. But when we consider how much time it took to create the image, how much time we as viewers might now take to look at it knowing that the entire image was cut out of paper, lingering in that memory's image now seems to be the most important element in McClure's work.
While looking at her images we might be pulled into a memory of one of our own moments and linger there, remembering the feeling of summer wind on our skin, the scent of laundry right off the line, or an afternoon spent in the garden with your grandmother......

Nikki McClure's website can be found at www.nikkimcclure.com. One of the best ways to enjoy her work if you can't see it in person, is through her books (I picked up one I am particularly fond of in Toronto called Things to Make and Do), calendars, posters, cards or if you can afford one, a original framed papercut from her affiliated gallery www.buyolympia.com