This week on Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Joe Acone sit down with New Hampshire based artist Aaron Kane, also known as the Cut Paper Guy.
This week on Creative Guts, co-hosts Laura Harper Lake and Joe Acone sit down with New Hampshire based artist Aaron Kane, also known as the Cut Paper Guy.
Aaron Kane has built a distinctive practice around the meticulous art of hand-cut paper, transforming simple material into intricate images of architecture, cities, imagined spaces, and emotions. In this episode, we discuss his history as an illustration student, his “Ah Ha” moments as he delved into cut paper as an art form, and what it means to build and sustain a creative practice as an artist in New Hampshire.
Check out Aaron’s work at www.thecutpaperguy.com. Follow him on Instagram at www.Instagram.com/thecutpaper_guy.
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Grateful for our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show.
Views and opinions shared by our hosts or guests are their own and don't necessarily reflect the views of Creative Guts.
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:00] LHL: I'm Laura Harper Lake.
[0:00:01] JA: And I'm Joe Acone.
[0:00:03] LHL & JA: And you're listening to Creative Guts.
[0:00:18] LHL: Hey friends, thank you for tuning in to Creative Guts, the podcast that's on a mission to awaken creativity, community, collaboration, and opportunities for gutsy creatives of all ages.
[0:00:27] JA: Today we've got Aaron Kane, also known as The Cut Paper Guy. He's a New Hampshire-based artist that works exclusively in cut paper, carving away positive and negative shapes, creating beautiful architectural pieces, as well as pushing the boundaries into things like conceptual art and expressive art making, all with cut paper.
[0:00:46] LHL: Wow. His stuff is so cool. I can't wait to hear more. So let's settle right in. Jump into this episode of Creative Guts with Aaron Kane.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:57] JA: Hey, Aaron.
[0:00:58] AK: Hi there.
[0:01:00] JA: How you doing?
[0:01:00] AK: I'm doing well. How about you?
[0:01:02] JA: Doing great. Doing great.
[0:01:03] LHL: Thanks so much for being here.
[0:01:04] AK: Oh, it's an honor. I really appreciate it. Thanks for thinking of me.
[0:01:08] JA: Of course. And let's just jump right in here. Who is The Cut Paper Guy?
[0:01:13] AK: Oh, goodness. To be as straightforward as possible, I am a hand-cut paper artist, pretty much meaning that I use a single sheet of paper and a X-Acto blade, and I go to town on it. It's a lot of positive, negative space. It's a lot of fun, a lot of tedious work. It's hours on end just cutting tiny shapes out of a sheet of paper. And I have to stress so much that I am a hand-cut paper artist.
The one thing I deal with a lot, especially when I'm at galleries is even with the medium being listed, there's always someone who zooms in really close on my piece, turn and look at me and go, "Printmaking?" And I'm like, "It's right there." You almost had it. You're right there. So it's a fun medium to work with. It's definitely off the beaten path around here with most mediums that I feel like we all see around here. And I think that's what's kind of fun about it is introducing something new around here, something that isn't as common. But yeah, that is The Cut Paper Guy.
The name itself was kind of a fun little story because my senior year in college, no one really knew me by my name during the senior show. So they knew me by my work. So when I was walking around and I was trying to see all the other senior work and whatnot, I remember people looking at me and being like, "Oh, what did you do?" I was like, "Oh, I was the one who did the hand cut paper stuff." And they're like, "Oh, you're that cut paper guy. You're that cut paper guy." And it echoed throughout the night and the week after when I had to pick up the remaining pieces. And it stuck. I was like, "You know what? I'll just stick with that." I was going to have my title be something like Aaron Kane Art or something. And it just was like it's The Cut Paper Guy.
[0:02:53] JA: It works great, man. It really sticks out.
[0:02:55] LHL: Cutting right to the chase.
[0:02:57] AK: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
[0:02:58] JA: And I know I can speak to that, what you're saying there regarding not taking a second to process what you're looking at. Listeners, at the Derryfield School, we're currently exhibiting Aaron Kane's work. And it's in September right now, the show's up. And the students and staff and faculty, everybody walked through, they're like, "This stuff's so cool. Oh, man. It's like digital art, right?" And I'm like, "No, it's cut paper. Look at the thing." Because I set up a – you gave me an off piece that's like really still cool. I don't know how it's not like a full piece. It looks awesome. But you were like, "Yeah, here's this like little scrap thing." And it's like a portrait. And I taped it up so that way it's hanging from the front. It's hanging down, so that way it creates like a sense of – you can actually see that it's cut paper. And then they're like, "Oh."
[0:03:52] AK: Yep, yep. All the time with me. I can't tell many times that happens where they're just looking at like, "Oh, is that Photoshop? Is it this? It's that?" I'm like, "Please read the sign or the medium or something." And I don't mind. I will gladly spend my entire time at an opening reception just next to my piece just to talk to people about my work. I could do it for hours. And my wife loves that. She really enjoys when I sit and talk about my art, and she's like, "It's midnight. I'd like to sleep." And I'm like, "Another thing, though. I want to talk about this." I enjoy doing that. It is always funny where it becomes a guessing game of just like, "Well, what is this? Is this –" And I'm like, "It says this."
[0:04:30] JA: Well, it does create a conversation though, right?
[0:04:33] AK: And that is what's great about it, yeah, is that it does create the conversation and there's kind of more bonding with that. And they're like, "Oh, I really appreciate you like illustrating this medium that I really didn't have an understanding on." So it works out in the end. It's just very repetitive.
[0:04:48] LHL: And so why cut paper? How did you get into it?
[0:04:52] AK: Oh, boy. So you've already heard this story a little bit. Long story short, it was a small suggestion. It really was a simple suggestion from a friend in college to go into more detail with that. It was my freshman year, second semester, and we had an illustration class. And throughout that class, throughout the semester, we had to do a portrait. And each portrait had to be on a different medium.
Now, at that time, I was going in with a strong understanding of ink, charcoal. I was very good with that. And I had used all the mediums that I was really good at. And the next class I was panicking because I was like, "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do." All I have is this paper and all these other things. And I really don't know what to do. And my best friend was like, "Oh, just do something on paper. Do some sort of collage thing or something." And I was like, "Oh, that's actually a good idea."
And that night I took some reference photos, messed around with like half tones and stuff. And it's a lot different than like how my medium is now, but I had a black sheet of foam board, and I essentially puzzled together with white paper on the black foam board a portrait of myself. And the next day I was like, "Are they going to like this? Is this even going to be something good?" And I got a huge response from the teacher and the other students. And I just was like, "Okay, maybe this is something I can kind of work with still and keep going with."
And at that time, I didn't think it was really a medium to begin with, like a collage, obviously, but the specific thing that I was doing. I just Googled like, "Oh, cut paper artists." And there's tons of them out there. And it was very comforting because I was like, "Is this something worth going into knowing that I'm kind of the odd one out?" And there is like a whole kind of network of other cut paper artists. So I was like, "Oh, let me just keep going with this."
And it was until junior to senior year that I really took it more seriously where I was like, "Yeah, I really want my senior show to be this." I really want to lock this in because I was doing smaller pieces throughout the other semesters, the other years, and it was still getting like a really good response. And I just wanted to keep going with it. And now it's my main thing.
And yeah, it's funny to see in my studio that I don't really have like pencils or anything. I have like a couple, but it's mostly like knives and paper. All my other supplies, I donated and stuff, and it's just stuck with me and it's been a lot of fun.
[0:07:19] JA: Yeah.
[0:07:20] LHL: It's so cool. It's always amazing to me when art takes you by surprise. You don't predict your path. Because I believe you majored in illustration.
[0:07:30] AK: Yes.
[0:07:30] LHL: And so this is veering off that path. And you seem so joyful about it.
[0:07:35] AK: Yeah. It was definitely a challenge too, because with my work, I can't really erase things. Once things are cut, it's removed.
[0:07:44] LHL: It's sculpture.
[0:07:44] AK: Exactly. It's in the same sense of that, where during my senior studio time, a lot of the teachers, they'd walk around, they'd give advice. And of course, they'd see paint. She was like, "Oh, try doing this, try doing that." And they look at my stuff and they'd kind of throw up their shoulders. They're like, "Good job? Yeah, it's good what you're doing. Try this on the next piece." Because I'd be halfway through cutting something where it's like it's already locked in. I can't really change it anymore.
Towards the end of it, I was able to get a better sense of that where I would hand them my drawing and be like, "Now imagine this cut. What would you like me to change?" And that was always the tough part with a lot of my professors is that I was the odd one out.
[0:08:25] JA: They didn't know what to do with you.
[0:08:26] AK: Yeah. They really didn't when it came to critiquing my work, because it's like, "Yeah, you already cut it. You can't really go back now."
[0:08:34] JA: Yeah. Right.
[0:08:34] AK: Yeah. So that was always a fun thing. And I feel like in some cases it might deter someone from wanting to keep going. But for me, it was like, all right, challenge accepted. Let's see how I can maneuver around this in some way. And it was rewarding in the end, especially with the senior show, because I had I think nine pieces or 11 pieces. Oh, yeah. It was 11 pieces and nine of them sold. That was the biggest reassurance at the end of the day where I was like, "Okay. Yeah, this is definitely worth it, and a medium I should just keep going with," because it worked out in the end. People bought my work and were really interested about it. It was really exciting.
[0:09:11] JA: Well, yeah. That's interesting. Because I know in illustration program there's a real emphasis on concept, narrative. And then, obviously, the goal of the program is largely to get involved in some kind of commercial workflow or process or practice and solve problems for others. I remember having gone through the same program that the senior show is such a capstone moment. But then we never really had much of a conversation in that program around like how to sell or what would you sell in the gallery. And I'm interested in – because, obviously, your work now is very gallery centered, right? It's exhibition centered. Could you tell that you were having growing pains in that program?
[0:09:56] AK: Yeah. Yeah. I will say at college, it was tough because the conversation wasn't brought up enough about what do you do with yourself once you're actually out of college? Where do you go exactly? And I feel like with a lot of friends who went to college with me, we're feeling the same thing where you're really good at drawing comics. And of course, naturally you're like, "Okay, I should go in with working with comics, either write my own, draw my own." But I feel like there isn't like where exactly do I go like with that? And I think that's something that has always been a tough thing is you're kind of like a deer in headlights once you get out of college and you're like, "Well, what do I do?"
And for me, my first thought was, okay, well, I really should reach out to galleries. That was my first thought. And I feel like trying to get known, like networking. And that's a big thing with social media today is just networking. You have to sell yourself to some degree. And that was my first thing. I think the week after the senior show, I was already looking at galleries. I was like, "Okay."
And that's the other thing is finding websites or places that help with finding these galleries that have call for arts and whatnot. I just looked everywhere, and I landed in a couple. And it was really great because it sounds kind of like cocky on my end, but like people do not get accepted into galleries. And it sucks when that happens. Failure is not the best thing, but for me it was definitely a motivator.
And for the first four years out of college, I was getting into galleries. I think there was only one place I was getting rejected by, and it was in New York. I didn't realize how big the gallery was. That was the other thing. I was a small fish in a big pond. But like around here, I was constantly getting in. But I also was hearing the other side of that where I had a lot of friends who weren't getting in. They weren't getting accepted. And the cocky side of me was just like, "Why aren't you getting in? It's so easy. You just submit –" and it sounded like kind of harsh, but it's just like there is a lot of work involved.
And I think looking back at it now, I really was putting in a lot of work, and a lot of my friends were as well. And it shows that it is tough out there. And some people might luck out more than others, but it's just with me, I've been – even today, actually, I've been actually having a hard time getting into certain galleries and stuff. But I think it's something I look back on where it's like there was a time where I was successful. And I am going to have those times again. It's just there's always going to be bumps in the road.
And I think that's one thing I see a lot with people not wanting to continue pursuing art out of college is the failure that comes with like not getting in a gallery or not finding the jobs that are apparently somewhere that you can find after college. And I think that was the best learning thing for me was just like the failures and putting in the work and just kind of working towards those things and understanding that it's not going to be a straight line or a nice smooth road. It's going to get bumpy and it's going to be tough for everyone, but you have to keep pushing forward with that, you know?
[0:13:04] LHL: And there's so many factors to all of it with just the industry always being in an evolution, social media and marketing always being an evolution. And there's just always sort of a flux with it. So it's a kind of a universal thing with a lot of our guests is just the challenges of being an artist. And that's one of them is sort of the adaptability you need to put yourself out there.
[0:13:24] AK: And that's one thing I really tried to do is talk with other artists and understand their experiences, understand that it's a bumpy road for them currently and it might be a smooth road for you. And it was just understanding the experiences that yours isn't going to be the same as theirs and the variables. There's always going to be something different for each person. And I think understanding that I think builds more of a connection towards those other artists and stuff and understanding that they're really putting their heart and soul into this stuff. And they deserve the spotlight just as much as any other artists.
[0:13:57] LHL: And that's something I love about art and creativity in general is that for the most part, I see everyone I talk to on this podcast, everyone is rooting for each other. You would think, oh, we're competition. We want to both get into a gallery, but we're both rooting for each other even if we know not all of us can get into the same thing. I'm happy when other artists succeed, even if I don't. So I think that's kind of something amazing that sets our industry apart.
[0:14:21] AK: Always so quick to like dive on a puddle and have people walk over me if it means like they're going to have success yeah. I'm like, "Quick. You want to get in this gallery? Quick. I'll jump in front of this car, and now you can make your way to like that gallery and talk to them."
[0:14:34] LHL: Race there. Yeah.
[0:14:35] AK: Yeah. It's like, "No, I'll take the hit. You go and be successful. I'll go somewhere else. Don't worry." I'm always so quick to do that. I'm always so quick to put someone else on the pedestal and just like help them out. It feels good to do that and not like treat it like a competition where it's like, "No, I'm supposed to be slashing your tires and being –"
[0:14:52] LHL: Like sales.
[0:14:54] AK: Yeah. Like, "I need the art sales." Like, "No. I don't want your art. It's supposed to be about me." We're all like it's all mission-based work, right? It's like we're all kind of waving the banner of creativity and expression and doing all that good work. And so it's like if someone else is doing well, then you want to raise them up, because they're doing it. They're spreading the gospel.
[0:15:16] LHL: And that is exactly true because I think the arts are often undervalued. So I think we all kind of intrinsically know that if someone is out there buying art in the world, that means there's another art buyer. There's another person collecting art. And so there's more people caring about supporting artists.
[0:15:34] AK: Oh, my goodness. You mentioned that just one of the things I like to do to keep me sane or awake in car rides is I talk to myself a lot. And one of the subjects I had the other day was art collectors.
[0:15:47] JA: You had a conversation with yourself about art collectors. Okay, go on.
[0:15:49] AK: I sound great on this right now. But it was the thought of that where one of the things I see a lot, especially on social media, especially on Instagram, is you get a lot of people that are like, "Oh, I became a successful artist in just three months. Here are the three things that I did." And the first thing is the most basic thing where it's like, "I networked." And it's like, "Yep, so is everyone else currently at the moment." But it's like, "I also met collectors." And I'm like, "Where are they?" Because they're always saying, "Oh, you need to find a collector. You need to meet these people. You need to meet these specific people." And I'm like, "They're ghosts to me," because I'm always trying to make a pitch for my art and stuff.
And the funny thing is I find myself doing that with other artists though. So trying to find like those specific people who are here to actually look and buy art. I feel like it's like a needle and thread sometimes because it's like, "Where are they?" Because it's like they're not going to introduce themselves and be like, "Hi, I'm an art collector." They're going to be like, "I'm Stan. How are you?" And then they might mention it. That's always one thing I notice is an interesting thing within the art world is trying to find those people who actually want to buy your work.
And part of me, I almost want to just be point blank and be like, "Whoever is an art collector in this room, raise your hand." And then just be like, "Stop moving. I'm coming to you. We're going to have a conversation." It's always something that makes – sorry, that was a bit of a tangent.
[0:17:12] LHL: I always feel like it's the job of the gallery person, manager, owner, whatever, that builds those relationships and then is that link between the artist. But then that's another gate that artists have to get through, getting into the gallery. And so it's like exposure and access. And there's a lot of who can get into things. Sometimes there's closed doors with certain places. It's a tough thing.
And I'm sure it's different in different parts of the country. But when we think about New Hampshire's local scene, I think there's a good balance of more commercial stuff, but then underrepresented artists as well with some organizations really pushing that. Wrong Brain comes to mind as one of them or Mosaic, stuff like that. But it still is a challenge to get people to come to those places and buy the art.
[ 0:17:59] AK: Definitely. Definitely. And that's one thing I see all the time. And I want to help with that too, where it's just like – especially with Mosaic, they've been doing an excellent job. They're wonderful.
[0:18:07] LHL: They're amazing. Yeah.
[0:18:09] AK: Oh my goodness. They have been great to work with. And I think actually last show I had there – well, actually, there was one show they did called Trash to Treasure. And I think my piece, I took a state farm bill and I cut into it. I cut like an ocean, an endless ocean. And like my whole symbolic thing was like, "Oh, the money's endless." It's like, "Oh, I always have to consistently pay. I'm drowning in bills. I'm drowning in debt." And the piece actually sold. And that was like so surprising to me.
But they do a good job at really promoting that and trying to like, "Look at this. Look at this amazing piece." They do a great job at networking that. And later on, I had a couple small group shows, some friends and stuff. And it's such a great environment for that. And I see so many artists that I've been following on Instagram that will post I think once a month, like, "I sold a piece there. I sold a piece there." They're doing something right there. They really are doing something right there. And it's great seeing that. I almost like tear up when I see someone else buy one of their pieces. I'm like, "Yes, they did it."
[0:19:13] JA: Shout out to Mosaic Art Collective.
[0:19:14] LHL: Yeah, that's right.
[0:19:15] AK: Definitely.
[0:19:16] LHL: I'd love to go – I feel like I should have asked this earlier in this conversation, but I'd like to go back to your process of how you work. Because for folks who have no kind of concept of what the process is for how you produce your work, because some people see it like, oh, that's digital art or that's printmaking, there's a level where they're similar, but when you really look at them, they're very different. So what is the process to get there compared to the other ones, I guess?
[0:19:42] AK: One of my first things I always say when people ask my process is I try to compare it to printmaking, the woodcut. It's kind of the same thing where I'm not cutting just like a little sliver of something, I'm cutting a specific shape out. It's along the same lines. So with a lot of my pieces, especially early on, it was very heavy perspective base. So I would have eight and a half by 11, but then I would have it on a piece of paper that was like three feet long because I was trying to get the three point perspective.
So a lot of it was hand drawn and then I would mark where I was cutting. So a lot of it was drawn onto a single sheet of paper and it would have to be in reverse, especially if I was doing stuff with text. I can't tell you how many times I've made mistakes, especially with my newer stuff, because a lot of my designs I do today, I do on Photoshop. And I have a big Epson 24-inch printer that I print a lot of my designs on the back. So many times I have printed it and I can read it normally. And I'm like, I shouldn't. I should be reading it backwards. Because once I cut it and flip it, the finished side, you're reading it.
At the very beginning, it was very much just hand-drawn stuff. And it is just a single knife. Now, I use surgical blades, actually. Surprisingly, surgical blades are pretty cheap to buy on Amazon. Weird reviews on that end because it's either craft people being like, "Oh, I made a scrapbook with this knife. It was great." And then one person's like, "I did open heart surgery. It was wonderful."
[0:21:14] LHL: What hospital is buying off Amazon?
[0:21:15] AK: That's the funniest thing is I'm like, "Do you actually work in a hospital?" I really hope so. But I get a lot of that review. It's the funniest thing. I use surgical blades. They do actually last a lot longer than X-Acto blades. And they're, believe it or not, around the same price range. Sales pitch here. But I work primarily with that. And I have a drafting table that can angle.
[0:21:42] JA: Save your back.
[0:21:42] AK: Oh, my goodness. It's my back that hurts the most with this process. It's not my wrist. It's my back. It's just sitting hours on end with the stencil that's pretty much been either printed or drawn. And it's just positive narrative space. It's a lot of positive narrative space, especially with my older work. My current stuff is done in a very specific halftone where it almost looks like stippling to a degree. It's just hours on end cutting out tiny dots.
Now, luckily, they're not perfect circles. They're technically squares. The way I do it is I'll lay out the piece. I'll cut top and bottom, top and bottom, and then I'll rotate it. They're not really circles. They're squares if you really look close. But that's kind of the general process. I'm realizing I've never actually had to thoroughly describe how I go about like doing my art. And that's always been the weirdest thing if I've ever had the intention to teach someone. Because I'd be like I've always taught myself in my own crazy way. I've never actually thought of putting it on paper or actually wording it up.
[0:22:48] LHL: Describing the step-by-step process. Yeah.
[0:22:50] AK: Yeah. I'm realizing as I'm saying this, I'm like, "Does this actually make sense?"
[0:22:53] JA: It does. And I'm picking it up a lot, actually. It's interesting when you say it just now that there's the finished side. It's just implying that you're doing a lot of sketching and drawing on the opposite end. If someone ever bought your work and just for some reason decided to take it out of the frame and look at it, would they see sketches and stuff on the back?
[0:23:13] AK: The one thing is it would be really impressive if they actually got it out of the frame. And the whole framing process, that's another thing, is it's all just trial by combat. I've been just kind of figuring out on my own one thing that is crazy within the paper cutting community is no one really shares how they frame or do their work. It goes to like the baseline of like, "Oh, I made a shadow box," where it's like I did two pieces of glass and I sandwiched it in the middle and there's a big gap in the frame. That's the base level of any information you get on how to frame paper cuts. Anything else, you have to figure out on your own.
And some of the people will say like, "Oh, well, I go to someone who frames my work for me." And it's like, "I have trust issues. I don't want to do that." But also, it's the affordability why. Where on my end, I will take a – depending on the color of the paper. So if I'm doing a paper cut where it's on white paper, I'll usually try – if I'm working with a client, I'll be like, "Oh, do you want a colored background? Do you want it to just be black? Is there anything specific you're looking for color-wise?"
If the paper is black that I'm cutting, it's usually a white backer. To get it onto the backer is just adhesive dots. So I'm mounting it on so it's stuck to the backer. So you can take the whole piece out with the backer. You just can't actually take the piece out because there's tons of just adhesive dots holding that thing down so it doesn't move.
And I've actually learned the hard way. And believe it or not, one of the pieces that's at Derryfield right now, I didn't have that many dots on it. And I don't know what I did. I was just forgetful. I left a piece in my car and it was the middle of summer and the adhesive dots were melting. So when I went to go pick up the piece from my car, when I realized that it was in the car, the piece was off center. And so I always try to keep things in a certain environment. Obviously, the environment it's in right now is totally fine. It's just don't leave it in like a hundred degree car. So I tend to load my pieces with tons of these adhesive dots for that reason to just not move.
[0:25:15] JA: So I'm getting what you're saying. So the thing I said about taking it out and looking at it, maybe like a forensic steam could do that.
[0:25:22] AK: Yeah. And I usually try to tell people if they really want to know a bit more about it and stuff, I'll tell them like, "Oh yeah, the backside will have like all these X marks and drawings, all these pencil marks and stuff." Or it'll be like a printed-out stencil design that I do on Photoshop.
One of the papers that I was using for a while was called silhouette paper, and it was black on one side, white on the other. So I was able to do a black cut piece without worrying about not seeing where the drawing is, because if both sides are black and I'm trying to draw on it, it might disappear over time, especially when I'm leaning on it and my hands are brushing across the pencil, the pen.
With the other side being white, it was super helpful because I could see everything and I could also print on it. That was very convenient for a time, but the paper is very delicate. So I've learned the hard way, many mistakes of ripping it here and there. And I'll never tell where those mistakes are. But I've moved on luckily to a much more durable paper. And I've been actually spray painting the paper black now. And that actually works 10 times better than the silhouette paper.
[0:26:24] JA: Is that right?
[0:26:25] AK: Yeah. Once again, I'm learning as I go because it's not like even during college, anyone was teaching me how to do cut paper. I really had to learn all this stuff by myself. And there's so many like trade secrets I can go into about how you should go about cutting the paper, where you should start if you're cutting a piece or why it's actually better to cut it backwards and not on the front side because it tears more on the backside.
Or if you're cutting on the side, it tears more, but it looks a lot cleaner on the backside. That's another reason why I tend to do it backwards, because it's actually cleaner all around on the other side. You don't see many of the scratch marks and everything from the side you're working on. That's another little secret.
[0:27:06] JA: Well, yeah, these are trade secrets. But to your point, you have to learn a lot on your own. So these are like The Cut Paper Guy trade secrets.
[0:27:15] AK: Exactly. Yeah.
[0:27:16] JA: Who's to say the full cut paper community understand. There's probably a young budding cut paper artist listening to this, like, "Oh my God."
[0:27:26] AK: Exactly. Yeah. Because I'll be such an open book about it because I've gone on like half an hour-long rants in my studio being like, "Why don't other cut paper artists like share this information? This would be so helpful, especially if people see this stuff and want to do it." It's like just be an open book and just tell people, what exactly do you hope to gain? Not telling people this stuff.
[0:27:48] JA: Well, there's a lot of labor involved with your work. And I think that's one of the things that's like immediately apparent. Because I talked to you a little bit about sort of like at my school, they do themes every year. And our theme this year is resilience and action. And all the kids had to read Endurance, which is a book about Shackleton. And so labor, pushing through hard times, all this stuff. And so your work is like a really good visual parable for that because you can tell like how much time when – especially when you see someone's face, because I'm sure you've seen it a million times, but when you tell them it's cut paper and they're like, "Oh. Okay. This is a different thing now. Okay. I understand."
[0:28:31] AK: Yeah. It's cut by hand by me. Especially with my newer stuff with the halftones, it's just thousands of just little dots that I'm just cutting for hours on end. And it sounds awful. But to me, it's the most relaxing thing. I will just put on a podcast or music and just zone out for hours. But it is a very timely process.
The piece I'm currently working on right now, I'm I'd say two weeks into it. And I still have probably another two weeks, but I have to cram it into like three days because I'm coming down to the wire on my show right now. But this piece, even just by looking at it, and I've gotten to that point where I can look at these pieces, I can go, "This is going to take me a month, if not longer, just by gauging the size or the amount of dots I'm looking at." It's a very long process, but it's rewarding though.
[0:29:22] JA: For sure. You just kind of answering my question I was gonna ask, which is why would you do this to yourself? But it sounds like similar to a lot of folks, you just love the process.
[0:29:32] AK: Yeah. You find that one thing that just you don't even notice that time is passing.
[0:29:38] LHL: The Zen.
[0:29:39] AK: Yeah, exactly. And I think when any artist finds that, it's like that's your medium. Just keep going with it. Because I can't tell how many times I've – especially in college where they kind of throw you around different mediums and stuff. There's certain ones where you've only done one brushstroke and it feels like it's been like five hours. And it's like, "I hate this. This is awful." But with the medium you really like, you don't notice that that time is going by and you've gotten a lot of work done because it's your element. It's what you love to do.
And it's really cool when you meet those artists who find that niche, that one thing that just is, "This is what I can do." And I get that a lot with my cut paper stuff because they look at me like, "Oh my God, how can you do that?" But it's like, I'll look at your art and be like, "Well, how can you do that?" Because I look at an oil painting and I'm like, "I can't do that. I can't do that at all." But they're like, "Oh, how do you cut paper?" It's like, well, feelings mutual here.
[0:30:32] LHL: See, that's my problem. I've never met a medium I don't like. I like to do them all. And then I just get torn between them all the time.
[0:30:39] AK: That's awesome that you can do that because there's some mediums I tried to work with and I'm just like, "I hate this."
[0:30:46] LHL: To be fair, I haven't tried cut paper much, so I don't know.
[0:30:49] AK: Who knows? You might find the one you're just like, "This sucks. I'm not doing this."
[0:30:55] LHL: Really big question here. What happens with all the pieces when they get cut out? Do you have confetti parties?
[0:31:02] AK: It's weird because I try my best to keep them, to collect them. And funny thing is I actually had a big jug of just all my scraps from the emotions body of work. Because I had it in a solo show back in 2024. And what I actually did was I saved all those scraps. And actually, they had a window display. And I actually dumped all the scraps in the window. So all the scraps were from those pieces. And it wasn't even my suggestion. One of the ladies that worked there suggested it. I was like, "Why didn't I think of this?" But even right now with all the dot pieces that I'm working on right now, I have a little jar right now that I'm collecting. Most of them are in my – my studio's in my basement and it's all carpeted. So it's gone. It's like my carpet is dandruff right now. And I just end up vacuuming that stuff. But if I do keep a lot that end up on my drafting table, I'll usually push it into my little –
[0:32:04] JA: Coffee can.
[0:32:05] AK: Yeah, coffee can. I was trying to think of the word.
[0:32:09] LHL: I'm looking at the State Farm one with the waves.
[0:32:11] AK: Oh, you found it?
[0:32:11] LHL: Yeah. It's so striking. I love it. It's in the color – the red with the logo. Everything about it is amazing. But I could imagine if you teamed up with a collage artist to make a collage of the larger pieces that you're cutting, that could be an interesting collaboration.
[0:32:30] AK: That's actually a good idea.
[0:32:31] LHL: I don't know if that's – I'm just suggesting an idea.
[0:32:31] AK: No, honestly, I'm so open to ideas. Because when I've talked to some people, a lot of people are always like, "Oh, it's just black and white." And they always ask about a color element, which I'm open to. It's hard to figure out what would work and how it could be cohesive with the cut and the paint if I use paint or if I print some sort of like ink splatter that goes on like the back of it or something.
I'm always open to when people are suggesting. It never comes to me for some reason. So when someone else says that, I'm like, "Why didn't I think of that? Why didn't this come to mind?" I love getting the suggestions. And that was around a time where I was really trying to experiment with color. And I think for the State Farm, I was like, "Oh, they use a lot of red. So I'm like, "Oh, just do red."
[0:33:17] LHL: I'm not shocked at all that it sold. I want it. It's gorgeous. And it has such an important message, I think, too. It's home run, really.
[0:33:25] AK: It's funny, too, because I think on the bottom there's a couple numbers with squares cut out. And I think it was like important, like ID information.
[0:33:32] LHL: Policy number.
[0:33:33] AK: Yeah, it was like numbers I had to cut out. At that time, I don't think I was with State Farm anymore. I think I moved on to a different insurance. But I was still paranoid. Because I forget who I was talking to about it, it might have been my wife, and she was like, "You know, there's some really important numbers on the bottom." And I'm like, "Yeah. So?" And like, "You should probably get rid of that." Oh, okay. I guess that that's fine. And then I think as I worked and I was like, "Oh, now I see what she means."
[0:34:00] LHL: Here's another idea. We can cut this. But if you did something based on redaction of files, like cutting – because that made me think of that, because that's such a topical thing right now in the last year or two.
[0:34:14] AK: That's a big thing kind of right now. Some specific information.
[0:34:16] LHL: If you want to do some political art, there's definitely maybe – because you're cutting away and –
[0:34:22] AK: Yeah. It'd be funny. Because at that point, it would just be a big square cut out and not just individual lines. I don't know. I've seen some of these documents and I'm like, "You're not even – the word 'the' is the only thing I can read from this."
[0:34:35] JA: I know that there's a whole practice around blackout poetry. It's making me think – that piece is awesome, by the way. I love it. I'm far from like a learned individual when it comes to collage. But I do remember Michael Oatman was a mentor of mine in grad school. And he talked a lot about this concept because he does a ton of collage work. And he talked about this concept about pre-existing conditions and kind of using that as like a variable in his art making process, like what you did with the state farm bill. The pre-existing conditions of that as like an item that holds – it's loaded. It's loaded with conceptual weight.
I'm really excited by that and how it contrasts because you do so much heavy lifting with all of the lovely design work you do, the really contemplative emotion-based stuff. I almost kind of want you to – if I had my druthers, I'd be like, "Aaron, just go do a bunch of these cool – just cutting all your bills or rip pages out of books or." I don't know if that's leaning too hard into collage for you.
[0:35:44] AK: No, honestly, I really like when people do that for me because there are some times where I'm just in my studio and I have no idea what my next series of work is going to be. I sit there for hours just like – I don't know. And I think because it's the one thing I see a lot with other artists, and it's me kind of comparing myself, which I shouldn't. I'm my own thing. We're all guilty of it.
But you see a lot of artists who kind of have like that niche, that specific like style or type of work that they do, that they never really change. I feel I'm obligated that I have to do that as well. But I think what is more creative is being able to – and this is like the other side of my brain that's like, "Well, it's kind of cool to be more versatile with your work and do different things."
Right now, I did my emotion series, which was very conceptual, where my current work is more kind of observational, where I'm – a little sidetracking story is I love the ocean. If I could live there, if I could live on the coast, I would. It's sadly very unaffordable.
[0:36:47] JA: I'm looking at a painting of a crab right behind your head as you're saying this, by the way.
[0:36:49] AK: Oh, that makes sense. But I've spent a lot of time on the coast growing up, so I have a love for it. And my solo show that's going in the Hampton Public Library is a lot of just reference photos that I've taken of places that I've cherished growing up that are on the coast. So it's these homes and stuff that I always saw and all these areas of rocks and places up in Maine. So it's very observational. It's kind of a different thing from my conceptual stuff. But it's something I really love to do and I could do for years on end if I wanted to.
And I just always feel like one side of me is like, "You got to keep doing that type of work and have that be your only type of work." But at the same time, it's like, well, I like finding something new that gets suggested to me and doing that as well. Because I like the versatility to it where people can see like, "Oh, this guy has range. He can do all sorts of things." And I feel like that helps almost a client base as well. If people want a commission or something, it's like, well, I want something kind of like this. Oh, but you also do something like this, like with the bill, like something like that.
I'm always in this constant battle of like, oh, I have to stay in one lane of work. But I want to like do all these other things that people are always suggesting. That's why I love when people come up to me like, "Oh, I should try doing this, try doing that." And it's like, yeah, I really should. I really should.
[0:38:06] JA: Yeah. I totally get what you're saying regarding how people say that you need to have – I mean, I think that's just like basic economic sense that people are applying is you have to like – you want to have a brand or something.
[0:38:18] AK: Oh, of course.
[0:38:19] JA: But I've also heard like from many artists how they have multiple concurrent running bodies of work, which lets them scratch different itches in the studio. It's like you know you have your kind of like more serious work running here. But then on the side, you have like something you can be a little more looser.
I think what you're saying here when you're saying it's observational, you're not trying to imbue a concept or something. You get to react to what you see. And I think what you just said was that it's you enjoy that part of the process.
[0:38:50] JA: Yeah. The story behind it is like this is something that I really am close to home with is these coastal places and stuff. And I want to kind of share that with others and what I see, but it's not like I'm taking a handprint, putting a face in it and being like, "Oh, this has to do with this." Some huge, crazy concept behind it where it's like, no, this is purely just an observational thing that I want everyone else to see with my work.
And that was another thing that was always tough is a lot of people are always telling me that, you know, there needs to be a concept to it. There needs to be some sort of like nuanced story behind it. And it's like, I just find this beautiful. I find this house I found on the beach to be a very striking view and I want to do a piece on it. And a lot of people are like, "Oh, what's the real story behind it?"
And it's tough where you feel like you're forced to create a story behind something where it could be as simple as just, "I really like this." Or even like the piece you saw behind me, I really like crabs. I just really want to paint a crab. It can be as simple as that, but there's, once again, the constant battle sometimes.
[0:39:55] JA: Well, as somebody who went through the same program that you went through, I share the baggage of feeling that odd pressure to deliver in a certain lane. And I wonder if some of that is – I can't speak for the folks who went through like the fine art/painting program, but it was a definitely, I think, a more reactive space yeah as opposed to being prescriptive. Because so much of that, again, the illustration dogma of what we went through yep, it was very much if you want to be successful, you have to do it this way. Much like the bros that you were talking about on Instagram.
[0:40:29] AK: Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I see it all the time. And I'll just go on like tangents of like, you don't really need to do that. Or they give like the most vague advice because then it's them selling a product. It's them being like, "Oh, click the link below and I'll tell you." And it's like, "Oh, okay."
[0:40:45] LHL: And they're trying to fill their quota of what to post today is what it feels like to me sometimes.
[0:40:50] AK: Totally. Yeah.
[0:40:51] LHL: I wish we could ask you a million questions because this is so fascinating.
[0:40:56] AK: I could be here till midnight, honestly. That's the thing. I could be here all day, honestly.
[0:41:02] LHL: Well, up next, we have our rapid fire questions, which are quick and quick.
[0:41:08] AK: Yes, I will try my best. My voice will crack probably a little bit in panic.
[0:41:13] JA: All right, here we go. Rapid fire. Buckle up. What is the color you could paint an entire room and never get tired of?
[0:41:19] AK: Forest green.
[0:41:20] LHL: A scent that instantly transports you somewhere.
[0:41:23] AK: Ooh, firewood.
[0:41:25] JA: A sound that you never get tired of hearing.
[0:41:28] AK: Oh, that's a tough one. The ocean, the waves. Yeah.
[0:41:33] LHL: A texture you can't stop touching.
[0:41:36] AK: Ooh, fleece. That's weird as that sounds.
[0:41:38] JA: Good answer. A taste that feels like home.
[0:41:41] AK: Oh, my goodness. These are – Reuben sandwich. I don't know. I'm speicific. But that's the first thing I really enjoy.
[0:41:50] JA: My cousin Reuben.
[0:41:51] AK: Reuben. Yeah. Literally.
[0:41:57] LHL: All right. This is an option A or B one. Tidy workspace or beautiful chaos?
[0:42:00] AK: Ooh, tidy workspace.
[0:42:02] LHL: I kind of had a feeling, but I wasn't sure. Yeah.
[0:42:05] JA: Music, podcast, or silence while you work? And if it's music, what's on repeat?
[0:42:11] AK: Oh, music. And we went to a concert together to see them.
[0:42:16] JA: Oh, Keane?
[0:42:16] AK: Keane.
[0:42:17] JA: Yeah.
[0:42:17] LHL: I love Keane. I saw them.
[0:42:20] AK: We met up. I happened to turn around and you were just standing there. I was like, "Oh."
[0:42:23] LHL: Where and when did you see them?
[0:42:25] AK: This was at the – it's connected to Fenway, the music hall.
[0:42:30] JA: Yeah, that place in Boston. I don't know. I can't remember.
[0:42:31] LHL: I don't know. What year was it? We might have been at the same show. Nope, it wasn't. I went like 15 years ago.
[0:42:38] AK: Yeah, this was like their 20th anniversary for Hopes and Fears. Yeah. Yep.
[0:42:44] JA: Yeah. It was great. And everything, everything opened for them –
[0:42:46] AK: Yeah. Never heard of them before. And they're now like my top album. I listen to them all the time too.
[0:42:50] LHL: That is so cool.
[0:42:52] JA: That's really awesome.
[0:42:53] AK: Sorry, I got distracted.
[0:42:54] JA: No, it's good.
[0:42:56] LHL: Is there a ritual you do before you start creating?
[0:42:58] AK: Cleaning. The best way to get started is to clean. That was very fast. I'm sorry.
[0:43:05] LHL: That is excellent. There's no such thing with rapid fire questions. You can't be too fast.
[0:43:09] AK: Okay.
[0:43:10] JA: If you can go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?
[0:43:15] AK: Start cut paper sooner, if anything. That'd probably be it. Start it sooner.
[0:43:19] JA: That's good answer.
[0:43:19] LHL: That's excellent. Aaron, thank you so much for being on the show.
[0:43:24] AK: Thank you guys. It was an honor to be here. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
[0:43:29] LHL: It was a delight.
[0:43:29] JA: It's so good getting to talk to you, man. It's great seeing you across the table. And thank you so much, obviously, for coming on and informing our young cut paper artists tools of the trade.
[0:43:38] AK: Hopefully future cut paper artists. I think the goal from this is future cut paper artists.
[0:43:45] LHL: Yes. Indeed.
[0:43:47] JA: Definitely.
[0:43:48] LHL: So with that –
[0:43:48] LHL, JA & AK: – show us your creative guts.
[0:43:55] JA: What a great conversation. It was such a pleasure getting to touch base with Aaron again and sort of hear more about his process. And we really appreciate you coming on and sharing your creative guts with us, man.
[0:44:05] LHL: Yeah. Actually, mid-conversation with him, I realized I've met him before at See Saw and Mosaic for one of his shows there. And I'm pretty sure me and my husband were one of those people who were like, "What? It's cut paper?" And he probably saw our faces go, "Whoa." But phenomenal, phenomenal conversation because I love the nuts and bolts of a process. And I love it when I hear about new processes of things I don't know. And Aaron did a great job of really breaking it down and talking about all these intricate details of what he does for intricate work. And it's just fascinating to me. And he's in a really unique space where he's kind of taught himself a lot of it, which I also have mad respect for.
[0:44:49] JA: Yeah, absolutely. And he really eats, sleeps and breathes this stuff. And it's so cool that he's been able to push himself so far. I met him years ago back in 2012. I taught a pre-college summer program. It was the first, literally the first thing I ever taught, and he's in it.
[0:45:02] LHL: Oh, that's cool.
[0:45:04] JA: Yeah. I'm so happy to see like, man, he's just really just shot out and done some really great work. And it's kind of full circle. I'm so happy to have him exhibiting at my school right now.
[0:45:14] LHL: Yeah, that is really, really amazing. And I'm so glad that we got him on the show, and it's kind of just a lot of Aaron for you lately.
[0:45:21] JA: Yeah. No, it's great. It's great.
[0:45:22] LHL: Yeah. And I really appreciate how much he was appreciating other artists and wanting to uplift others too. And I think that's such a wonderful mentality. And just pleasure talking with him all around.
[0:45:34] JA: Absolutely. And if you want to see more of Aaron Kane's work, all the links are in the episode description and over on our website, creativegutspodcast.com.
[0:45:42] LHL: Yeah. Hey, listener, you should come hang out with us. Creative Guts is on social media, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord. That's not really social media, but it kind of is adjacent. You should come hang out. It's an online clubhouse and it's really fun. You can also subscribe to our newsletter and get updates right in your inbox.
[0:46:02] JA: Thank you to Kennebunk Savings Bank for sponsoring the podcast. This episode is also sponsored in part by Rochester Museum of Fine Arts. Thank you to our friends in Rochester for backing the show. And a big thank you to Art Up Front Street for giving Creative Guts a place to record.
[0:46:17] LHL: And if you got something out of this episode, a laugh, an idea, a little push with your own creativity, you can send that energy back in a few ways. You could leave us a review, subscribe to our podcast wherever you're listening now, interact with our posts on social media, grab some of our cool merch, or make a big or small donation. Every little bit helps keep the mics on and we genuinely appreciate you.
[0:46:41] JA: Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of Creative Guts.
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