Through a family connection (thanks mom), I had the opportunity to contribute to a large piece to be displayed in the Hilton Hotel at Penn’s Landing. The location of the piece within the hotel is less important (near the head), than the fantastic way that it turned out. For a such a success, it’s surprising it started the way most fiascoes kick-off; with my mom asking, “Hi! Can I commission something from you?” It might sound odd that such a question would elicit a negative response, but usually the request is something unusual, and somehow “working” for my mom immediately reminds me of being a teenager; it’s like hearing, “I need to talk to you,” as soon as you get home from school. But it worked out, in large part due to her having the base art completed before my part began. Overthinking and over-planning are my two worst enemies.
She asked me to cut the Statue of Liberty, poor gal (she’s feelin’ it right now), based on a simple photograph. She had already laid out a black background with torn strips of red, white, and blue, so all I had to do was design Lady Liberty out of yellow (goldenrod?) Canson paper and cut to fit.
That was it! I sketched it up, drew it out, cut it out, laid it down. No drama. It looks fantastic. If you look closely you’ll see something very unusual for my work – she is in three pieces. It’s very rare for my cuttings not to be one piece, but in this case, I wanted to be able to re-position her as-needed to fit the tall and narrow frame.
CookePapercutting 