Berks County man’s paper art is recognized worldwide
Airdate: April 3rd, 2023
Edward Babiarz, who lives in Berks County, is a paper artist whose work has gotten worldwide attention. It is a medium that takes a lot of imagination, skill and patience.
On The Spark Monday, Babiarz described the process he uses for creating paper art,”My process is I start out with a piece of cotton lint or basically a 20 by 24 press piece of cotton. And then I put that in a five gallon bucket of water. To that, I add, it’s like a mixer, an industrial blender that actually pulverizes it into a pulp. Then the process continues with adding it’s a retention aid. It’s a, let’s say, a chemical additive that I put to the pulp that actually helps the dye adhere to the pulp itself. After that part’s done, I put it into a vat of water, agitate the vat, and I have a mold and decal that I use to actually form my pieces of paper, pull it out of the VAT, and I press it and I just make a stack or a post of paper until I’m done with that specific vat to that, it dries. I let it dry naturally so that the fibers will actually adhere to themselves more readily and more steadily. So when it comes time to sculpt, it’s going to be a more stable piece of paper so that after it dries, I re wet it again. And then the creative, let’s say in me, the fun part happens and then the paper will dictate what it’s going to do. So I’m putting some colors together. Or if things don’t quite work out how I would like them to, I can always recycle and use the paper again. So it’s forgiving.”
Does have a plan for his art in mind when he starts,”Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t. It depends. The motivation for my pieces comes from music, primarily listening to music, dance movement. It could be just looking outside the window and seeing the wind go and how that actually flows. And is that going to inspire me to take this piece of paper and form it into something that’s, you know, to me, making art is a very selfish thing because it’s what I want to do to step out of reality. I want to make something that’s pleasing to me. And hopefully if somebody else sees it and they find value in it and get a reaction to it, that’s what it’s all about.”
Babiarz’ paper art is on display at the Yocum Institute for Arts Education In West Lawn.
