The Venetian Paper Reliquaries of Patty Grazini

Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757), an artist who painted the portraits of all the nobility throughout Europe. 

She tragically lost her eyesight at the end of her life. This is one of the portraits she painted. Below is a tool box and stand constructed entirely of paper which might have held her brushes.

I've always thought of my friend, Patty Grazini as someone who would be equally comfortable living in the Victorian or Edwardian era, but as nobility, as she would be revered for her rarified talents. She works tirelessly all year long to craft a group of paper sculptures based upon a theme—often of real events or real people. This year, she again has a new exhibition of exquisite paper constructions currently on display until December 21st at the Curtis Steiner Gallery in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood. Her latest new works are inspired by historic reliquaries, or sacred relics made to honor the dearly departed. 

     Patty explains the theme of her new group of paper sculptures by saying, "I wanted to create memorials that were reminiscent of the reliquaries that I saw while traveling in Italy over the years."

     For this new group, Patty chose to memorialize ten notable women from Venice "who lived in an age of extreme decadence and beauty—during the long decline of the Venetian Empire in the 16th to the 19th centuries." The ten women she chose to honor with her own imagined paper reliquaries were noted for their contributions to the arts and culture of Venice, yet their legacies have been nearly obscured by history. Each piece is accompanied by a small handmade book with a quote by these remarkable women, or one of their contemporaries.

     I believe this must now be Patty's tenth annual exhibit at the Curtis Steiner Gallery and the fifth time I've reported on her annual exhibitions in this space, and each of her shows have been impressively staged like a walk through history, fabricated entirely of paper. The stories she tells of people are true—and whose lives she characterizes in period paper garments, with personal possessions, and furnishings—each produced in exquisite detail by twisting, embossing, folding, decorating and manipulating beautiful found papers and ephemera. Magnifying glasses are definitely encouraged. All of these artworks seen here, and more are for sale, and yes, they are made entirely of paper. You can learn more about Patty and her work at this link, and read some of my past posts of Patty's paper productions here. 

Caterina Cornaro (1454-1510).
Through and arranged marriage, she became the last queen of Cypress.

Beads, baubles, jewels, and stones are mounted in metal-like settings, all made of various found, decorated, embossed, distressed and marbled papers and ephemera which Patty has collected from her travels and from friends.

Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646-1684), was the first woman
in the world to earn a doctorate degree. Here, Patty Grazini features her quilled pen,
inkwell and eyeglasses as a tribute to her life's work. 

  

  

Gallery owner, Curtis Steiner is an exemplary artist himself.
Not only is he a curator, painter, calligrapher, jewelry designer, and sculptor,
but he also constructs the most imaginative window displays of paper each year. This year's display features a paper garland of large, gold leaves made of folded text pages above a display of
his hand lettered holiday cards. The white tramp art table below this is made of old
wooden thread spools—another sight to behold.

Interpreting the Artist's Muse

Everything is subject to interpretation. Even muses, as Seattle artist Patty Grazini has illustrated in her latest show of work at the Curtis Steiner gallery in Seattle. Her subjects of interpretation are thirteen scale models of artists' muses fashioned entirely in paper. Accompanying each of her fifteen-inch paper models are: varied accessories rendered in the artists' paintings; a decorative frame of gold papers with a replica of the artwork; and a handsome display providing a short biography of each artist's muse. The word astonishing frequently comes to mind when I try to describe her interpretive artworks.  

This is the seventh consecutive year that Grazini has exhibited her paper artwork at Curtis Steiner's gallery (follow this link to last year's post which will lead to two others), each with a new theme and narrative. One common thread however, is the historic costume, and I asked her about this interest. She explained that she particularly loves 19th century costume, however she wanted this show to reflect a wider time period and range of different artists and muses. This group spreads over the course of 400 years, beginning with Rembrandt's muse and wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh, and ending with Picasso's muse, Dora Maar.  

It seems there is nothing that Patty cannot replicate in paper. When I asked her if she had any particular challenges with this group, she spoke of the difficulty of creating the surface designs on a number of the costumes. 

     "The greatest challenge with this group was trying to replicate the dress and accessories in the paintings. I had to treat the papers in ways that were new for me. In the Rembrandt (Saskia) piece, I bleached the paper. I wanted to retain the surface design, but remove the color. Then I re-dyed the paper to match the painting. I wasn't sure if I could accomplish this before the paper disintegrated. Although the paper was very fragile in the process, it ultimately worked." 

   

A sleeve from the Rembrandt muse, Saskia, which Grazini bleached and re-dyed. 

For her portrayal of the Matisse muse, Grazini added her own stamped and ruled surface designs to the paper costume in order to loosely interpret his intentions.

Few details get lost in Grazini's work; even on the reverse side. Each model can take her nearly three or four steady weeks to complete, and she focuses on just one piece at a time, so "not to scatter my attention" she claims. Every stitch, and every seam, is constructed the way a master tailor might design each piece. It helps that she has an eye for color and for texture, and she continually challenges herself to learn. 

     Picasso once said "I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them." The same could be said of Grazini's work. Much to my surprise, she never works from preliminary drawings. Instead, she prefers to experiment as she goes. 

     "I sometimes start a piece and then if it isn't working...I start over again. I need to see it before I know if I am able to get the results that I want" she explained.

The narrative story in Grazini's work is as critical an element as the craft itself. She loves stories and history—especially art history—and has finely tuned her research skills over the years to find these stories. 

     "I want to give voice to people in history, and especially to women, who have been overlooked or forgotten. There were a few muses whose story I felt compelled to tell. These were a bit more challenging because I had to portray the muse in whatever painting she appeared. The dress was a secondary concern. Jeanne Hebuterne (the Modigliani muse) and Lizzie Siddal (the Rossetti muse) were two examples."

  

Rossetti's muse, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Siddal (1829-1863) was a milliner's assistant before she became entangled in a twelve-year relationship with him. Their dramatic affair was filled first with joy and then anguish, and ended tragically after her drug overdose. Rossetti insisted his journal of poems about her be buried in her coffin—only to regret it later. Eventually he had the notebook retrieved.

Titles displayed on each model's base were penned by gallery owner, Curtis Steiner who has a beautiful way with the pen.  

If you are in the Seattle area between now and Christmas, Curtis Steiner is keeping his gallery open daily. Grazini's paper models are nicely staged there against a backdrop of beautiful furnishings, finely beaded jewelry, exquisite artworks and other alluring antiquities, which are all for sale and on exhibition throughout the holidays. You can also read more accounts about The Artists' Muses on her website.

Where There's Smoke

With the rise of cigarette smoking in the early half of the 20th century, and the appearance of increasingly nice cigarette packaging design such as the Player's box above, a new folk art craft quickly evolved. The practice of folding paper objects and artworks from tobacco packaging became a favorite pastime as smoking products were more widely distributed. Over time the paper artworks became more complex, and the increase of functional objects, such as purses, toys, vases and frames began to appear. With exception to some of the great early packaging design, I suspect this folk art tradition was possibly the only positive consequence that developed from tobacco use. 

Here is a fine example of a decorative wall piece made from at least 25 Player's cigarette boxes. It's estimated to be mid-20th century, and measures about 6.5 inches in diameter. For a view of similar examples of these elaborate decorative works made from cigarette boxes, visit The Puzzle Museum's Hordern-Dalgety Collection.
     One of the most beautiful and paradoxical influences of this paper-folding practice evolved in the Japanese internment camps during WWII. Origami was a favored pastime for many of the internment camp detainees who relied on their paper-folding skills to create innovative structures from cigarette wrappers such as the small umbrellas. With the addition of toothpicks, string, chopsticks, and a great deal of time, they could fashion a small umbrella to be used as a gift or a toy for a child. The miniature umbrella below was made by a Japanese internee living in the Tule Lake internment camp in California. It is remarkable not only for the craftsmanship and the condition, but also for the beautiful spiral pattern created by the letters on the wrappers. You can read more about the history of this particular origami work of art at Mingei Arts.
::The Player's cigarette package above is from Cigcard's Flickrstream.

     

Polish Packaging Paper

Vintage packaging paper from various book, jewelery, and folk art chain stores in Poland. These and more provided by Mononukleoza's Flickrstream.