Bianca Levan

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Neighborhood: Mission
Group Affiliation: 1890 Bryant Street Studios
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The process of papercutting is a method of emotional processing. The journey to create a piece is a journey through a psychological landscape. My cuttings generally originate from an idea I’m exploring, an internal debate, or an observation about lived experiences. Since the body carries emotional experiences, both past and present, I am able to connect the feelings to thoughts through the physicality of papercutting.

With each artwork, I begin by crafting a scene that conveys the internal world I’m experiencing or questioning. These imagined landscapes often include naturalistic elements, such as trees, flora, oceans, and mountains, existing alongside manufactured ones, often taking shapes of buildings or boats. Using a blade, I cut and extract pieces from paper.

What results is a papercut imbued with the imperfections that arise from a precise tool in imprecise human hands. I revel in the uniqueness of these variations and hope that they serve to personalize the work so that others may find their own imperfect, evolving, growing stories within it.