The Daily Muse: Elise Wehle Mixed Media Artist

Elise Wehle‘s intricate paper art was born out of the realisation that modern technology had changed how she viewed the world. ‘I’d think of memories in terms of Facebook photos, not the actual experience,” she says, describing how she would also imagine landscapes digitally cropped or colour-corrected. ‘I wanted to slow myself down, do something tedious and meticulous.’ Her Paperthin series recreates digital images using traditional, time-intensive methods such as paper-cutting, weaving and intaglio printing. ‘It’s quite meditative, says Wehle. ‘Because my hands are working, my mind is free, instead of being consumed by information.

I make the art I do to pull me away from the increasingly digital world that surrounds me. Every day I spend so much time in front of a glowing screen that sometimes I forget I possess five bodily senses and not just one or two. Making art makes me conscious of my hands again, and all of my work requires time-intensive, redundant movements that remind me that not everything is as instantaneous as a click of a mouse. By weaving together paper, cutting lines, and folding shapes, I manipulate drawings, photos, and prints to create new landscapes for me to explore.

~ Elise Wehle