Laurie LeBreton

Joyful Noise
handmade abaca paper, marigold petals, acrylic paint, dyed monofilament, aluminum cans
variable installation

I make sculptures with handmade paper. With these sculptures I try to access something beyond our concrete world and to find meaning and comfort through doing so.

For me, paper is the ideal medium to explore these ideas. Paper itself is complex. It is light, responds to movement and appears fragile. As a paper sculptor, I know that it is also pliable, absorbs color beautifully, and is very strong. Abaca, the fiber I use most often, shrinks as it dries, adding the element of chance to all my work. I also enjoy the process of papermaking because of my love of water, for its beauty, sensuality and for its healing qualities.

Working with multiples is a strong component of my work.  It is both a metaphor and a strategy.  Multiples, especially those with variations, point to the simple yet complicated nature of just about everything.  As an artistic strategy, they offer an opportunity for experimentation within a structure, for stillness with many variations.  As a visual strategy, they calm a busy eye, with each object informing the others.

I often suspend these multiples from the ceiling on fine line.  Their movement in response to the movement in the air means that the display itself is impermanent, that it also has many variations.

© Laurie LeBreton