Angie Pickman
Angie Pickman
Angie Pickman, originally from Atchison, Kansas, currently (2013) lives and works as a full-time cut paper artist in Lawrence, Ks, often operating under the moniker, “Rural Pearl.” She lived and worked in New York City for a number of years before returning to Kansas in 2009 to pursue her artistic career full-time. Pickman is a nationally recognized artist who combines traditional paper cutting with collage to create intricately detailed works of art and animations. Her work is inspired by her love of nature and the tranquility of the terrain of rural Kansas. She has been featured in Martha Stewart Living and Midwest Living magazines, and her animation work premiered on PBS in 2016 in the documentary Daughters of the Forest. She has won numerous awards for her work, including an Independent Music Award for album art. Her first children’s book, Merry Menagerie: Animal Antics from A to Z, was published by Ascend Books in 2018
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. I had always wanted to be “an artist” - 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. When I saw Lotte’s work, something clicked.
My life philosophy revolves around achieving simplicity, winnowing away at all the things that are not needed so the individual can be reduced to the rawest, purest being possible. 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 unnecessary to reveal the subject in a simple, bold form.
My tools of trade are a rubber gripped x-acto knife, acid-free paper, mechanical pencils, a self-healing cutting mat, and coffee—for consumption and for a few stains here and there.
