Paper art is creative outlet for Burnsville woman BY SUE WEBBER • CONTRIBUTING WRITER Surrounded by colored construction paper she bought for her 4-year-old granddaughter’s artwork, Kathy Davies became inspired. One day, she picked up a piece of paper and just started cutting. Since then, the Burnsville resident has created more than 50 pieces of paper art, some of which now hang in art galleries with price tags attached. “I call myself a freestyle paper cutter because I don’t use any pattern on the main piece or what I use to make it with,” Davies said. “I just start cutting and in my mind I seem to know what I want to get.” For much of her life – 28 years, to be exact – Davies helped youngsters in special education with artwork in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District. She began in Apple Valley elementary schools. “As the program moved, I moved,” she said. “When I worked in special education I did organize the art in the class along with one of the many teachers. My art ideas were always met with enthusiasm.” And she was the one who helped her own three children get their art projects together. There wasn’t time while she was raising children to indulge in her own artwork, Davies said. “I came from an artistic family,” said Davies, who had her own radio show and was active in community theater during her college years, including one summer with a professional theater in Bemidji. But her college training didn’t include paper art, she said, adding that she planned to become a speech teacher but instead became a dental assistant. “I have never done anything like this before,” Davies said. “As far as I know it isn’t taught. I really can’t see how it could be taught because it’s all done freestyle and it’s something that is your own creation. Every piece cut within the piece is never the same. To me what I do can’t really be taught because it’s the uniqueness of the creativity.” She begins by drawing a pattern and then cutting pieces freehand, using a haircut-type scissors and another tiny scissors with a fine point. “I lay out the pieces and they kind of make themselves come together,” Davies said. “I do have an idea what I want to make, but they don’t turn out the way I imagined them. They kind of create themselves.” PAPER - TO PAGE 4 Kathy Davies creates paper art by cutting each piece freehand and assembling the pieces into a creation. (Submitted photos)
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