Paper cuts
March 2, 2022
by Sharon Smith
Artist Kirk Fanelly’s inlaid cut paper work titled “Pandemic Still Life” could be a metaphor for our ability to grow and even blossom in difficult seasons. It depicts a menagerie of brightly-colored orchids blooming inside their protective greenhouse at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden.
If Fanelly could save only one work from disaster, this would be it. The work itself is particularly important to him and represents months of detail-oriented labor. It’s also a reminder of an important time in his life and of new friendships he cultivated at DSBG as he sought inspiration.
Fanelly’s botanical series comes as both “a challenge and needed respite from narrative painting.” The collection features a range of botanicals, like dahlias and anemones, that are eye-catching from afar and equally interesting a few inches away. “Specifically, it’s the spatial and surface tension between colors and shapes created by the sharp edges of the inlaid cut paper. The overall image is still most important to me,” Fanelly says, but he also likes how the mosaic quality engages the viewer up close. “It’s even interesting when I have a pile of cut paper on the floor.”
Fanelly, who is from Charlotte, says he’s learned to embrace his obsession with detail through art. “Every job requires degrees of patience and tedium, the difference is you get to see the physical result of my efforts. We could print out a lawyer’s writings — those are tedious too but might not be as interesting to look at on your wall.”
The Process
Fanelly begins each project by taking photos, drawing and then working off a scaled print. “It’s somewhere between a painting and micro-mosaic. I don’t say collage, because it’s all the same material,” he says. Because the archival papers he uses have a limited palette, Fanelly often tints them with acrylic or flashe vinyl paint to expand the range of colors. He uses a scalpel to cut and a special glue to make each layer of the cut (inlaid) paper adhere.
Fanelly’s works are scheduled to be on view at Hidell Brooks Gallery in October. Browse his botanical series @kirkfanelly. SP
