Most young children are fascinated by the colors and feel of construction paper. They sit for hours cutting, gluing and tearing the paper to fit their imaginations. I was also one of those children and distinctly remember how easily the paste spread on my construction paper creation in first grade.
Construction paper, however, is not just for children. Jen Stark is a professional construction paper contemporary artist. Born in 1983 in Miami, Florida, Jen Stark studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA majoring in Fibers with a minor in Animation.
In Jen Stark’s junior year, she studied abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France at the Center for Art and Culture. “I went over there with a couple of suitcases of clothes, figuring I?d get art supplies when I arrived. The Euro was high and everything was expensive, so I decided to get the cheapest material I could find, but one with potential. It was a stack of construction paper. I went back to my studio to experiment and the sculptures were born.” Not only are they detailed and colorful, they are very happy and peaceful.
I thought I would start with a piece named, “How to Become a Millionaire in 100 Days” which is an average size of 3 feet by 3 feet and has one million pieces of hand-cut paper. Jen Stark said that being a millionaire doesn’t really mean that it has to be a million in currency. As long as you own a million of anything, you are a millionaire. I like that way of thinking.
Beautiful modern art! Really! Much better than some of the stuff we saw at the museum a few weeks ago.
Those are seriously cool!
amazing works