KORTNEY YOUNG
Special to The Leader
This semester, Tim Frerichs, a professor of art, is offering a Paper Arts course for the first time. “What is paper arts?” one might ask.
Well, it certainly is not origami.
“Actually, paper arts, even though we tend not to think about it that much, is pretty ubiquitous. It’s everywhere, we use it, [and] we don’t even think about it,” said Frerichs.
Paper arts begins by making paper from scratch and then using it as a medium to create content, “because you have to learn how to make paper before you can actually start doing stuff,” said Frerichs.
Shauna Beckstein, a graduate with a BFA in sculpture, recalled what an experience it was the first time she made paper in Frerich’s book arts class, using nothing but a “paint making drill attachment and fibers soaked in a bucket overnight.”
“We didn’t have a beater, we didn’t really have any of the equipment, [and] we didn’t use a blender, which is usually what people do if they don’t have a beater. In class that day we beat this fiber in the bucket, and it was super chunky,” recounted Beckstein. “It was the chunkiest paper pulp I’ve ever seen in my life. It was like touching sheep … From there I decided that I really liked book arts and paper arts.”
Since then, the paper arts on campus has come a long way from what Beckstein encountered. The school purchased a 2-pound Hollander beater to help the process along.
“Ever since we got the beater, [Frerichs did] a couple sessions of paper making in the printmaking classes he’s taught, and also book arts, and even the foundations classes,” said Beckstein, who has returned this semester to audit and help students taking this new class.
During her time at Fredonia, Beckstein was able to intern at Cave Paper, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“I didn’t know this at the time, but it’s called Cave Paper for a reason — it’s in the basement of a building! I was paid in work exchanged for materials. So I got to take home a bunch of Cave Paper that’s really expensive, about $16-25 per sheet, because of how labor intensive it is,” said Beckstein.
Paper originated in China, so as a tradition, the class begins with Western paper arts. Traditional Western paper arts often uses materials such as flax or linen. Once a material is chosen, the pulp, whether it be rag, recycled diapers or hemp, is then beaten and put into a mold and suspended in water.
“Cellulose and hemi-cellulose loves water. When you suspend them in water and then let the water drop out of that screen, they kind of interweave, and you get paper,” said Frerichs.
The process is repeated several times until a “post,” or stack of paper, is built up. Then it is put into a hydraulic press.
“Making paper is a water-intensive process; at the cave we wore knee high rubber boots and bright orange fish monger aprons,” said Beckstein.
“People tend to really enjoy making paper. It’s a lot of fun, and you can do a lot with it — a lot more than you would probably think. Because of the versatility of the medium, you can use it sculpturally, as well as flat. That makes it pretty exciting, as well,” said Frerichs.
One artist on campus embedded and wove hair into her paper to portray gender rights issues. Other paper arts include: dying and using pulp as a medium for painting; embedding flat inclusions — with leaves, for example; and creating stencils and watermarks.
“Once paper came into the scene, it revolutionized along with printing technology. It’s very important in our history. It still is; we still print out a lot. We use it, but we really don’t think about it that much,” said Frerichs.
Paper arts will be offered again in the Fall and will become a permanent course.
“Because all other disciplines [in visual and new arts media] use paper, it’s really applicable,” said Frerichs. “So it does fill a gap. [The department] is fortunate — we have really good students here, so it’s a lot of fun to teach.”