Béatrice Coron Speaks on Creating Art by Cutting Away

 Béatrice Coron showing a paper cut art piece (photo by Nick Smetzer)

By Nick Smetzer

French artist Béatrice Coron demonstrated a peculiar way of telling stories: paper cutting, during a presentation on Tuesday at Trinity University.

“There are a lot of ways to cut paper, as there are a lot of ways to tell stories,” Coron told a small crowd of Trinity students and faculty at the Ruth Taylor Recital Hall, as part of the Stieren Guest Artist Series.

Having lived all around the world in places like France, Egypt and China, Coron’s unique personal history mirrored the distinct traditions of her unorthodox art form.

Coron displayed a keen interest in the different origins and styles of paper cutting artwork, showing the audience some of the first examples of paper cutting to emerge from China, as well as Japanese, Jewish and Polish paper cutting art. “Everybody cuts for a unique purpose,” said Coron. “For me, I make stories.”

Citing her experiences living abroad and working several strange jobs as inspirations for her own paper cutting, Coron discussed some of her own work. These art pieces focused heavily on narrative themes, as well as playful uses of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional space.

One notable piece, humorously titled “Theatre of the Mind,” is a contraption made of cut paper that one must wear on their head before they can make out the story it tells. Another pair of pieces, titled “Book Jacket” and “Jacket Jacket,” respectively, are just that: a matching book jacket and a wearable jacket, both made entirely out of intricately patterned cut paper. Many of her pieces contained references to classical literature, ranging from quotes from Shakespeare, scenes from Peter Pan, to French poetry.

“Everything is related to everything,” said Coron, referring to both the relation of her art pieces to one another, as well as their relation with paper cutting as a historic practice. “With imagination, there is no border.”

During a Q&A after her presentation, Coron noted the meticulousness of her craft, and admitted that paper cutting was not for the impatient or the faint of heart.

What if she made a wrong cut? “If I accidentally make a small hole, then I make a bigger hole. There’s always room for a bigger hole,” she laughed. “If it’s a very big mistake, then my philosophy is that if you make it once, you can make it twice.”

Senior Julia Poage enjoyed the presentation. “As someone who does more drawing and painting, it is so impressive to watch someone do such large-scale, meticulous and detail-oriented work.”

Like Poage, many audience members seemed to be impressed both with the sheer complexity of Coron’s designs and the varied sources of her inspiration. “I really liked how she took into consideration all of the cultures in which paper cutting was prevalent, and incorporated that so respectfully and interestingly into her own work,” said sophomore Stephen Sumrall-Orsak.