NORWICH – Paper is assumed to only come alive when the living stories and emotions of life fill its spaces, transcribed in the printed word.
However, without words paper still has a story to tell, and after 10 years of listening, local artist June Tyler has fallen in love with making it speak an organic language that often goes unheard.
“You’re taking something that’s ordinary,” said Tyler, who owns and operates Pondside Pulp and Paper, a studio and workshop specializing in manipulating the varied world of handmade paper. “And you’re making something original with it.”
Ten years worth of handmade paper artwork from Tyler and 21 other artists from Pondside will be featured July 21 through Aug. 25, in an exhibit titled, “A Decade of Papermaking.” The exhibit will be in the Mariea Brown and Raymond Loft Galleries at the Chenango County Council of the Arts, located at 27 W. Main St. in downtown Norwich.
The exhibit’s opening reception will be from 5 to 7 p.m. tomorrow, and the range of work includes sculptures, hanging pieces, lamps, books, paintings and a number of other traditional and eccentric pulp productions. The pieces vary in thickness, and many are embossed with common and uncommon designs, and some even include various pieces of the paper’s original producer – the earth.
“I wanted to do something more natural,” said Tyler, who teaches drawing and design at SUNY Oneonta, and has an extensive educational background in printmaking and painting from several universities and national workshops. “I wanted to get back to something that was very healthy and non-toxic.”
Tyler said and her colleagues mainly use household plant fibers to make the paper, but says they sometimes mix in tropical plants such as Kozo and Abica.
She added that the beauty of the paper is that it can become nearly whatever an artist wants it be; whether it is plain or practical, big or small, the focus or a compliment.
Artist Amy Doherty said creating the handmade paper brings her a comfort that a world of mass production can not. “Paper contains the spirit of the plant materials from which it was created, the water that created it and the hands that shaped it,” she said. “That is why I feel a reverence for handmade paper and books that the mass produced product can never fulfill.”
The simplicity of mixing then pressing water with plant fibers allows papermaking to provide multiple products, both physical and aesthetic.
“It is a very peaceful and calming process,” Tyler said. “If you want to make something special, it can be a part of paper.”
For further exhibit times and information call the Council of the Arts at 336-2787. For information regarding upcoming workshops and classes at Pondside Pulp and Paper visit the studio website at: members.aol.com/tylerpaper/pondside.html.