? ?
- And I'm gonna go right to the bottom
and come across the bottom and lift it straight up.
- For most people, paper is paper.
It brings the news or carries a message.
- Actually, you can see how the paper really glosses itself.
It becomes very, very shiny
because all the fibers are lining up and lying down.
- If people connect it to art, it's that paper can contain it
in the form of a drawing
or a story
or music notes on a sheet.
For Kirsten Christianson, paper is art.
- Okay, now I'm gonna snap it on one side,
tap it like that so it comes off the screen,
and lift it.
And there it is and that's a good sheet.
I know that when I'm making the paper
it's going to develop into this creative thing.
[scraping sound]
- This is not a hydraulic press,
but it's a pretty darn good press.
- Most paper comes from trees
cut down and trucked to the mill.
- Should had a pine branch in there.
- For Kirsten, paper comes from old rags,
flax,
and cattails by the river.
[water swishes]
- A combination of cotton rag,
what's called abac�, which is banana leaves,
that are very...
have really strong, long fibers.
- Paper can bind us to our daily reality:
to-do lists and work reports.
- If anybody sees a stack of handmade paper,
it isn't like newspaper.
You know, it's so different.
The texture, the thickness,
the size, the shape.
- For Kirsten, paper is uplifting,
- Well, I think paper is meditative:
the craft of it,
the rhythm of it,
the all-absorbing quality of it,
and yet, it's very light,
- Especially compared to her early work.
- My medium was carving stone,
and I loved marble, particularly.
- She remains a sculptor, but now with paper.
- I was rethinking things,
wanting to be lighter and more buoyant about my life.
? ?
- Buoyancy is a repeating theme in Kirsten's life...
- Yes, boats, and water, and wind,
and just that thing of being out in the water
and having, you know, no tethers or anything.
- She loves to sail
and lives in Algoma, near Lake Michigan.
- Well, I love the sound of the water.
- But I think there's something to water;
looking into depths
and seeing layers and reflection,
and color reflected in the water.
[swishing water] I'm just going to stir it a little bit.
I'm just going to move over here a bit
and then get right in front
and then I'll...
I think that it builds a dialogue with you.
It's you and your hands, and the water,
but the fiber, and if you're using natural materials,
that is really a dialog.
It isn't just you.
- For most people, paper is flat.
- My background being sculpture,
I like to cast with it.
- Kirsten uses her old techniques
and her new paper medium
to make art that comes alive and seems ready to float away.
- It's called, "Canoe Aloft."
- Even when working in two dimensions,
her ideas reach beyond the edge.
- When I'm doing that flatwork.
I am creating that paper, but it doesn't stay flat for long.
I mean, in the sense that you're building layers.
So, there is a dimension to it.
- I'd love to have extensions beyond the four corners,
the four sides.
- For most people, paper is a means to an end.
For Kirsten Christianson, paper is a process,
with endless possibilities.
- So, paper is...
I think it is innovative.
You're making it,
and then you think, "Oh, I could try this.
"I could add this.
How would this work?"
Oh, it's very rewarding... very rewarding.