January 23, 2007

In the Cut

Paper Relics

Some say that collage art enthusiasts — people who cross their T’s with sporting equipment stickers and dot their I’s with googly eyes — aren’t really plumbing the depths of artistic expression.

Clearly, they haven’t met Hope Wallace. Paper Relics, her sweet, sophisticated collection of greeting cards and stationery, is the epitome of proper cut and paste.

Working with old photos, antique sheet music, matchbooks, stamps, magazines, and other paper ephemera from the 1800s through the mid-1960s, Wallace creates Victorian characters and scenes with a sense of humor. Favorites include everyday vignettes like a fancy lady wearing antlers inscribed with “I miss you deerly dearly” and a sheep wrapped with a bow with the text “Happy Birthday to Ewe.”

For those with restless scissors syndrome, antique type fonts, grab bag paper bundles, and CD’s full of Victorian scraps and antique illustration clip art are also available.

Just remember: The first cut is the deepest.

Available at paperrelics.com.