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Cutting silhouette portraits at Walt Disney World starting in 1987, Richard's interest in graphic art took on a whole new medium. As a young graphic artist, inspired by classic pen and ink illustrators and medieval wood cut artists, he found that cut paper could offer a stylized “woodcut” look. Simple one color scenes allowed him to expand his techniques and to cut larger sizes, eventually using muted toned colored papers.
In 1994, he left Disney to focus on a computer graphics career, but his interest in cutting paper was eventually renewed when he decided to utilize computer graphic programs like Illustrator and Photoshop to design even more elaborate and technically demanding pieces. Manipulating his sketches and photographs in Photoshop, he clones out unwanted features or adds elements to make a visually pleasing composition. Redrawing at this stage, he makes templates, carefully aligning all layers properly, and cutting these with X-Acto blades.
Typically cutting 4 different layers of paper at once results in 4 separate, layered images, all with different color configurations. Each finished piece is unique (he never recuts the same design twice), but he also improvises on his templates, adding and subtracting as he cuts.
Wanting to pursue papercutting as a true fine art medium beyond folk art or craft designs, Richard’s subject matter demonstrates a variety of original designs from wildlife and still-lifes to floral and even fantasy. Living in Florida since 1978, he has created pieces illustrating the state’s wildlife and has recently he begun to explore imagery using ever more experimental colors, attempting to capture a more loose and painterly effect.
He has shown in solo and group shows from Kissimmee City Hall and the Mt. Dora Library to Highfield Hall in Cape Cod and the Guild of American Papercutters Museum in Somerset, PA and has won numerous First Place and Best of Show awards for his work.