Sculpture, Installation & Making Paper by Hand: Art by Jocelyn Chateauvert

Jocelyn Chateauvert - Papermaking Artist

Sculptural Papermaking Installation - Paper in Bloom - Jocelyn Chateauvert

Did you know that handmade paper sheets in their wet, pressed state (before they're finished and dried) can be manipulated into amazing sculptures? Jocelyn Chateauvert is a hand papermaking artist with an enviable talent for working with this unique art-making process.Many of Jocelyn's sculptures, installations, and jewelry are inspired by plants and botanical forms. She has spent time in Guyana as a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow, researching and drawing a plethora a plant forms. Just like a garden, the wet paper sheets Jocelyn makes need tending (manipulating, wetting, etc.) everyday before they are complete.Finally, the dried, finished paper works are wonderfully alive in the gallery, interacting with light, rustling in response to air movement, and encompassing viewers.Her artwork is a poetic mix of subtle and sensitive texture, light, color, and space. Each piece feels elemental, driven by process and characteristics unique to making paper by hand.Trained as a traditional papermaker by Timothy Barrett, Jocelyn imbibes each art work with her intuitive sense for the magic of hand papermaking. Not only can we can see paper's inherent strength and visual beauty, but we can also sense a meditation on the remarkable marriage of water, plant fiber, and papermaker that results in handmade paper.From Jocelyn Chateauvert:

“I face the ocean, just minutes away my hands imitating a wave as I draw the mould through the vat gathering pulp. Water and fiber settle after the final crest as if exhausted. I tuck each sheet between woolen blankets then press it hard to mingle its cells. Paper still damp my fingers impress crease, fold and pinch integrating structure with pattern. The paper responds then shrinks taking its final form from the air itself.”

Sculptural Papermaking Process, Technique - Artist Jocelyn Chateauvert

Sculptural Papermaking Artist - Jocelyn Chateauvert

Jocelyn works primarily with flax and abaca, both strong papermaking fibers that can create beautiful, translucent papers. The fiber must be broken down into a pulp with a Hollander Beater, a type of machine that papermakers use. The longer the fiber is beaten, the more translucent and high-shrinkage it will be, resulting in these remarkable artworks.See and learn more about Jocelyn Chateauvert's inspiring artwork:

• Read an interview on The Art Mag.

• Explore the installation, Paper in Bloom on The Daily Iowan.

• Visit jocelynchateauvert.com to see more!