Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Paper and scissor

We ran into the children's book store and were sent to the back. The young woman had a chair up against a wall and a chair for herself a few feet away. Craig and I wondered how she would do it. Would she flash a big light and trace around their heads?

Our daughter balked at going first so one of our sons jumped on the chair. He faced us and this woman who looked to be 27 years old studied his profile. Then she started to cut a small square of black paper. As the pieces fell, our son's profile appeared. She just looked at him and cut.

Our daughter got up next and played a three-year-old's variation of "I Spy" with us to keep her sitting in profile. The artist told us she liked the challenge of cutting out curly hair. Then our other son jump on the chair and sat patiently as she cut out his profile.

She cut out three portraits of our children in less than 15 minutes.


From Wikipedia -

A silhouette is a profile traced onto and then cut from black paper and was a simple alternative for people who could not afford other forms of portraiture, which, in the eighteenth century, was still an expensive proposition. The word took its name from Étienne de Silhouette, either because the victims of his taxes complained that they were reduced to mere shadows or because he enjoyed this fad art in his retirement.

14 comments:

jodifur said...

That's amazing.

Did you jut walk into this or did you know about it ahead of time?

soccer mom in denial said...

This was at our favorite (independent) children's book store (ask Ambassador about it). One of the owners told me the artist was coming about 6 weeks ago and I signed the kids up.

One note, it was expensive! But totally, completely worth it.

Alex Elliot said...

Definitely looks like it was worth it!

Jenn in Holland said...

Money cannot be an object in the acquisition of ART! Your children's profiles are GORGEOUS. Wish this artist was coming to a bookstore near me...

Ambassador said...

I have wonderful memories of the wall of silhouttes on the farm - and knowing that when I got to Kindergarten, it would be my turn too. I miss your wonderful bookstore (and mine too, I miss that one a lot!) and can't wait to get up there and see it again.

Those cuttings were worth every penny - damn, she's good! Ambassador

Anonymous said...

Those are awesome!

What are you going to do with them? Frame them I assume?

Everyone is all about paper cutout things here.

Anonymous said...

Wow those look awesome!!! I have only ever seen it at Disneyland (and it was way out of our league).

Anonymous said...

you sound like the biggest loser I have every heard!!!!!!I pity your poor poor kids when they actually get out in the REAL world.....OMG you make me sad for you!!!

Ambassador said...

For the sake of all of us, ANONYMOUS, please go lurk on someone else's blog. What's sad or tragic about anything SMID wrote? Are you completely devoid of a moral compass? These kids know more of the real world than half the adults I know.

So, not to be too much of a bully, but go piss off, you git.

Brillig said...

Holy crap, that's AMAZING!!! What a treasure!

Stacey said...

Wow, that it the coolest thing ever. How do I find this artist ?
Is she just local or does she travel ?

What an amazing keepsake!

Gunfighter said...

Anonymous...

Wat a sad thing to say about someone expressing her own thoughts and feelings.

Worse, you did it under the cloak of anonymity.

You, sir or madame, are a coward.

A coward, a dolt, and a weakling.

I feel incredibly sorry for you.

Wretch.

cathouse teri said...

They are beautiful and I do think it odd that only the men picked up on the bully-headed weeeeeeeener.

ba doozie needs to hit that anony-mouse in the face with a tampon.

Brillig said...

hahaha, Teri. I agree that it's interesting that only the men said anything! I saw it, of course, but assumed that it would be deleted, so I just wrote what I had planned to say before I saw the comment.

But I admire these great men who stood up in your defense, SMID. And I admire you for NOT ignoring it, nor getting angry. Positively admirable, my dear.