Beauty From Within

Be sure to visit Inner Pieces Gallery and her unique Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/InnerPiecesGallery   where you will find "designs that offer a modern approach to paper-cut art." The artist calls her designs "Lacuna Décor". In Latin, Lacuna means “empty space, or gap” and Décor means “beauty.” In other words, beauty comes from the space within! What begins as original illustrations transform into elegant pieces of framed inspiration.

by Inner Pieces Gallery
For many people, I think that my style of artwork is simply fun to look at. It’s dimensional, it’s unusual, and it looks slightly different at different angles, especially as light upon it changes throughout the day. For me, though, the dimensional space between the layers speaks to me in a more personal way. Though this lesson may have cost me more than a few dramatic trials in life in order for me to finally learn, I now truly know that everything I need already exists within me. I need joy? I find it within. I need strength and courage? I find it within. I need patience and understanding? It’s all there, within me, ready whenever I need it.

Too bad that philosophy doesn’t really work when it comes to square footage. My tiny little home office is bursting at the seams with furniture and equipment. The digital cutting tool that I utilize (think double the size of a sewing machine) takes up half my desk. My computer takes up the other half. My solution? Buy an additional desk and somehow squeeze it in amidst the bookshelf, file cabinet, copy machine, printer, drawers, more drawers, shipping supplies, more supplies, and a closet full of please don’t ask. Not exactly an environment overflowing with creative energy.

I do a great deal of creating when I’m away from my office. I venture into the living room, the dining room, or anywhere the mood strikes me. I especially enjoy moving my “studio” outside. Recently, in order to determine the color combinations of my next designs, I brought my little hors d’oeuvres tray full of color swatches out to the back yard with me. Seeing the metallic paper sparkle in the sunshine connected me, in a way, to the little ones I actually design for, those pint-sized lovers of all things shiny and sparkly! I hope my work delights them, excites them, invokes a sense of wonder and curiosity. I especially hope they learn (a lot quicker than I did) that joy truly does begin within!

Cherice
InnerPiecesGallery.com