"Power, sacrifice, and survival are the underlying themes that connect my cut paper. These three motivations also drive the tensions in my work, exploring the struggle between nature, rampant urbanization, and the ownership of natural resources.

I hand cut each work on a single sheet of Chinese xuan (rice) paper mounted on silk and both are renewable materials. My work is like drawing with a knife and is rooted in my study of Chinese calligraphy and pencil drawing. Cutting paper is a visceral reaction and natural response to my affection for immediacy, detail, and subtlety. The physical and mental demand from cutting is extreme and thrilling, slows me down and allows me to think clearly and decisively.

My creative process is three-fold: drawing, digital rendering, and hand cutting. I form ideas by sketching before creating a digital template. The template is a visual guide that consists of downloaded images, my own photographs, scans from magazines and books, and vector graphics. The final step is for me to hand cut the image with an X-Acto knife.

Employing the natural, off-white color of the rice paper, light play and shadow are essential to the overall impact of an image. Shadow gives life and dimension to my work. It offers a sense of reality contradicting the fictional scenarios within the images.

The thin strips of paper that remain form a larger picture; the deep paradoxes in my work contrast starkly with the airy, fragile laces. As a creative medium, cut paper best combines my skills, creativity, and personality, and frees me to create dramatic stories."- by Bovey Lee