Helen Lin

HELEN'S PAPER-TEARING ART

Paper-tearing art (also known as Torn paper art or Chigiri-e) is an art form in which the primary technique uses handmade colored paper that is torn to create collage. From a distance, the fuzzy torn edges may resemble a watercolor affect, and the long fiber texture may resemble oil painting brush strokes, which gives an unique 3D beauty.

Helen’s beautiful paper-tearing artworks are full of joy, energy, and harmony. Many of her artworks are in private collections.

PAPER-CUTTING ART

Chinese cutting art appeared as early as the Warring States period (476-221 B.C.) on silver and copper foil or leather sheets. Since true paper was invented in 105 A.D., paper-cutting has been practised in China for 2000 years. In paper’s early days, it was highly precious. Paper-cutting was only popular among the royalty and nobility until the late Han Dynasty, by which time paper-cutting had become a form of popular folk art in Chinese people’s daily lives. The earliest Chinese paper-cutting arts were found in 1959 at an archeological dig of a tomb dating to the Northern Dynasties period (386-581 A.D.) at Turpan, Xinjiang, China. The complex arrangement of horses and monkeys in geometric and symmetrical cutout designs indicated that folding techniques and sharp cutting tools were applied. Paper-cutting art in China has been used in festivals, ceremonies, interior walls, window decorations, wood-carving guides and embroidery patterns.

HELEN'S PAPER-CUTTING ART

Helen Lin remembers the joy of her childhood in China, cutting Chinese characters and flowers from red paper with her grandfather and aunt, and then pasting the results on the windows to decorate for the happiness of each New Year. After retired and moved from Taiwan to New York, Helen started to teach kids in Chinese school and adults in library workshops the joyful process of paper-cutting art. She also demonstrated paper-cutting in numerous local events.