Gloria Vachino

Arts and crafts have always been a part of my life, and over the years I’ve knitted, quilted, and embroidered. However, no medium has captured my attention as much as paper, which can be folded, woven, sculpted, painted, torn, glued and stitched. My passion is in two areas of paper art: collaging naturescapes- which I refer to as painting with paper- and weaving vessels. To create naturescapes, I first paint kozo paper (made from the paper mulberry tree) with acrylic ink pencils. The kozo paper has a fabric-like quality that makes it easy to manipulate and contains fibers that often become part of the scene. My woven vessels are created from watercolor paper that I first collage with hand painted or other decorative papers and then weave and shape using traditional basket making methods. I love sharing my passion for paper art with others and have taught classes at various art centers. I firmly believe that engaging in art reduces stress, quiets the mind and provides deep satisfaction in making something unique.