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Delicate Paper Cutouts Use Colors of the Sky to Bring Them to Life

Using only an X-Acto knife, artist Jo Chorny cuts intricate designs from blank sheets of paper. The bold images depict portraits of animals as well as nature scenes, with hand-carved shapes forming the textures of scales, fur, and feathers. In order to mimic these characteristics, Chorny must cut an incredible amount of small details from the paper, leaving little of it left behind.

To display her strikingly delicate silhouettes, Chorny holds her creations against the brilliant hues of the sky. The negative spaces in her cutouts are filled with gorgeous variations of blues, purples, and reds, demonstrating that Chorny doesn't need to add her own colors to bring these images to life–nature does a fantastic job of it all on its own.

Jo Chorny: Instagram | Facebook

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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