Cuttin and Walken

It is easy to be seduced by art at a young age. I mean what's not to like?

Your first introduction is w a box of waxy colors that release this exotic scent when you break their seal and when they scratch on paper they leave a trail of color like Gumby dragging behind.

What's more magickal than that.

We spend most of our time in discovery and imagination as children and if you're lucky you never lose it.

My father was a computer engineer and loved lines and geometry. So much so we would play math games and he would quiz me into total recall.

We would walk through something as mundane as a grocery store and find the patterns in things, shelves, food pyramids, box designs, etc. He loved to look and search for clues to puzzles that only existed for us to find. Treasures of lines and shapes were everywhere and He and I would bond together uncovering them and listen closely to the tale they wished to tell. He was a man who saw beyond the obvious and showed me his seering secrets by example. After he passed I cherished the memories of lines and shapes and mathematical games and all the beauty he showered with through the looking glass of his brilliance and perspective. But I was not gifted w tech-savvy nor was I able to maneuver a crayon, brush, or a pencil to submit to my whims (so the scratches resembled something ). Instead I turned my attention to a pair of FISKARS scissors my grandmother had kept away from my inquisitive eyes and curious hands. When she wasn't looking I would sneak and take them from the buffet drawer and behold their magnificence. I found it fascinating they could turn and twist a piece of normal 8 1/2x11 "paper into my wonderland. I spent a lot of time telling stories by what I cut out and pieced together. It was imagination overload in the best possible way. All those times out w my Dad I could cut shapes I saw from memory, cut lines of paper like pasta lined up ready to be handled, and layered into a new puzzle that I couldn't decipher, yet. Thinking back how many thousands of hours I spent just cutting strips of paper. Making piles upon piles of colors and patterns, shapes and sizes, and forgetting time all together for the infinite hours of joy this would bring me.

So here we are many years later and I still reach for my beloved FISKARS emblazoned scissors that hang in a place of honor near my desk. I've gone through many pairs through the years yet I can look at pieces I've created in the past and recall which scissors helped me manifest this creation. Scissors have been a constant for me and a way to cope w my anxiety, my stress and add in a big ol' heaping help of focus. They were/are my teacher, my sidekicks my bestie so much so I named one pair "Christopher Walken " .cuz.....I was letting my fingers do "the Walken ".Last week I was eyeing a few other pairs that have funky patterns on the handle by Fiskars. What better way to celebrate my batik paper creations but to find a special dedicated SWEET soul scissor sistah to help me achieve and inspire my vision. I've decided to name them "Tabatha Coffey" as she is a 'SHEAR GENIUS' and I so wish to become one.

My art arsenal is pretty simple / coverstock paper /stick glues / circle punches /inks/ and my mighty Fiskars scissors .

Art doesn't have to be fancy. It's as if I'm inviting my inner best friend /inner child out to play. I never lost my eyes to seer out and see the beauty in nothing and make something thanks to my Dad. The motto I live by is " Everything is nothing with a twist" and with Christopher Walken, Tabatha Coffey, and my Father's inspiration guiding my hands I will continue to cut beauty into this world in my unique and funky way!