Linda Colsh

Linda Colsh

Primarily Paper

Paper, like cloth, is fiber: paper can be stitched, fused, glued, torn or collaged; and paper can serve as the substrate for all manners of surface design. I first combined fabric and paper together in 2006. After a meeting of my art quilt group in Belgium, I cleaned up the kitchen and removed the damp, grounds-filled paper filter from the coffee maker, rinsed it and set it aside to dry. Later, I looked at the soft brownish patterning and found the marks intriguing; I remembered the good friends and fellow artists I’d shared that pot of coffee with and the lively discussions we had that day. Finding the mottled paper pretty in the way that the image of an old woman expresses the beauty of achievements, experience and wisdom, I collaged that filter, plus a few more, on an art quilt about a strong elderly woman. I found that particular woman beautiful for the history I imagined she had lived. Years later, I revisited used coffee filters and started making installations and collages from the filters, which in turn has led to experiments with collaging other papers, including hanji hand-made mulberry papers I dyed 30 years ago when I studied paper arts in Seoul, Korea.