Many artists are fascinated with paper, it’s many forms, characteristics, tones, surfaces and colors; and the way it provides a platform and co-meduim for various kinds of drawing and painting.
Jen Stark has chosen to make paper itself her primary medium, creating vibrant, intensely hued sculptures out of hand cut stacks of colored paper.
Her sculptures often drawing on the visual vibrations of complimentary colors and the appeal of hues in the order of the spectrum to give her cut paper arrangements a visual snap that is immediately arresting.
In looking through her gallery in photographs, you can see the dimensionality of some pieces easily, but others lend themselves less well to photographic reproduction (as is often the case with sculpture) and you need to project a bit to get an idea of what they might be like in person.
Her online galleries also include a selection of colorful drawings, which sometimes follow the sculpture into themes of repeated patterns and bands of brilliant color.
There are also a couple animations, or “papermations”, with animated arrangements of cut paper.
Stark studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she received a BA in Fibers and also studied animation, and at the Center for Art and Culture in Aix-en-Provence, France.
In addition to her web site, Stark maintains a blog, with news and information about her projects and exhibitions.
Both the web site and the blog currently feature a video interview with the artist (also on YouTube), in which she talks about her process. The moving camera also allows you to get a better idea of the dimensionality of some of the pieces.
