Functional Art - Both Beautiful and Useful
When creating a functional piece of art, the artist's intent is to bring works of creativity and beauty into our everyday lives. Whether it's a curvy chair made of cardboard or a coat rack made of car parts, functional art is designed to make us rethink the way we look at ordinary things, sometimes by using unusual materials in their construction.
I love using cardboard to make furniture because it can be molded to fit any shape imaginable! How often do you see a round wooden bookcase? These fully functional pieces are very strong in addition to being incredibly lightweight. For example, the end table pictured above can easily support the weight of a person sitting on it, yet can be picked up with just 2 fingers.
Making furniture out of cardboard is really nothing new - the French have been doing it for over 15 years. My love of all things French and my need for a particular size of table led me to become a cartonniste, or a cardboard sculptor. What is new, however, is that I finish my pieces with a traditional Korean papering technique, called jido, that I learned during my 7 years in South Korea. It's the marriage of these two different art forms that makes my pieces truly unique.
Making furniture out of cardboard is really nothing new - the French have been doing it for over 15 years. My love of all things French and my need for a particular size of table led me to become a cartonniste, or a cardboard sculptor. What is new, however, is that I finish my pieces with a traditional Korean papering technique, called jido, that I learned during my 7 years in South Korea. It's the marriage of these two different art forms that makes my pieces truly unique.
