Review

"The Garden", Cut Paper.

Angie Pickman

6-7:30 p.m.
(Opening Reception)

Crosstown Station
1522 McGee St.
Kansas City, MO
816.471.1522

Hours after opening reception vary; check Crosstown Station site.
Runs through: Nov. 30

Artist's site: http://www.ruralpearl.com
Gallery site: http://www.crosstownstation.com

There's a quote (perhaps apocryphal) attributed to Michelangelo, in response to a query about how he created his marble masterpiece David: "I just cut away everything that wasn't the statue."

That's the approach Angie Pickman takes to her art, albeit in a far more fragile medium.

My life philosophy revolves around achieving simplicity, winnowing away at all the things that are not needed so that the individual can be reduced to the rawest, purest being possible, Pickman writes. I think at this level, one is more readily able to truly observe and take in the natural beauty that exists around us. Cutting paper is metaphorical for this — the cutting away of all that is uneccessary to reveal the subject in a simple, bold form.

Pickman's simple, bold forms will be on display this month at Crosstown Station, although tonight's opening reception is the only time you can be guaranteed of seeing them without a cover charge. (Crosstown Station is a live music venue; hours and covers vary.)

Today's featured pieces, The Garden, is among several new works Pickman will debut tonight. Like her others, it's executed in a silhouette style that's intricate but never fussy. And like the others, The Garden has a decidedly retro feel — not from a few decades back, but from more than eighty years ago.

She explains:

I began cutting paper in 2003 after seeing “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” — a cut paper stop-motion silhouette animation from 1926 by Lotte Reiniger. (Note: Two fragments of the film — which is the oldest surviving example of feature-length animation — can be viewed here and here.) I gave up art for a bit while I was busy co-building a bakery in Brooklyn, and when I picked up my x-acto knife again in 2007, I knew that it was meant to be. I felt... complete. I had always wanted to be “an artist” — I knew from a very young age that it was my life calling, but it took me a long time to figure out in which medium this would manifest itself. The traditional forms taught in school never quite felt right, but when I saw Lotte’s work, something clicked.

It's still clicking ... and cutting ... and removing, bit by bit, everything that isn't Pickman's simple, lovely work.

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