“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.”
Mary Oliver, “When Death Comes.”
My paper cuttings celebrate the connection between the past and the present in Swiss paper cutting, creativity, nature, and wonder. Many of life’s simple pleasures are so precious because they are ephemeral: a sunny day, a storm, singing birds, flowers, and childhood.
Artists, scientists, and nature-lovers stop to look closely and observe these changes and the inherent beauty of all growing things, and whenever they do, they see miracles. Amazement is the reward for looking contemplatively.
When I am full of wonder and amazement, my heart overflows with gratitude, a form of prayer. Seasons remind us constantly of the patterns of growth and change, dormancy and rebirth in our own lives.
Whenever you see darkness or trouble in my art, and there is some, always look for the light in buildings, which shows you where home is, and where people are gathered. Look for the flowers which come up after the long, cold winter.
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds, the ebb and flowtides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”
Rachel Carson, “The Sense of Wonder.”
“It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe,which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature.:
Albert Einstein
Beth Curtin
Decoupages
September 11-October 10
Vernissage
Friday September 11 from 5:00 to 8:00
Children’s Vernissage with workshop
Friday September 18 from 5:00 to 6:30
Espace OZart
Rue de Voisinand 15
1095 Lutry
Switzerland