Like many in her home country of Denmark, Vejle grew up making gækkebrev, cut paper holiday cards. She discovered that she was rather talented at cutting out the little greetings.

For years, Vejle reserved her paper cutting for the holidays. But the summer she turned 16, she had an “Oh, I see!” moment:

$\"Karen$

Karen Bit Vejle
Image \u00a9 Marjaana Malkam\u00e4k<\/p><\/div>\n

The Cut Paper Art of Karen Bit Vejle<\/h2>\n
Until just a few years ago, Karen Bit Vejle<\/a> had a secret hidden under her rugs.<\/p>\n
Like many in her home country of Denmark, Vejle grew up making g\u00e6kkebrev<\/em><\/a>, cut paper holiday cards. She discovered that she was rather talented at cutting out the little greetings.<\/p>\n
For years, Vejle reserved her paper cutting for the holidays. But the summer she turned 16, \u00a0she had an “Oh, I see!” moment<\/strong>:<\/p>\n
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. . . I saw a man who was sitting in the sun cutting out paper silhouettes with motifs I had never before seen. I was enraptured, and stood there staring for a long time, watching the man as he maneuvered his scissors to bring forth the most beautiful little paper cutting. I was so taken with the idea that I went right home and got my mother’s sewing scissors, and I have never let them out of my sight since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
$\"Karen$
A ballerina emerges.
Image \u00a9 Marjaana Malkam\u00e4ki<\/p><\/div>\n
No longer waiting for the holidays, Vejle loved to imagine her designs and then work them out in paper. She spent forty years practicing her craft and hiding her work under her rugs because she had nowhere else to keep it.<\/p>\n
Unveiled to the World<\/h4>\n
That changed a few years ago when a friend dropped by unexpectedly. The house was littered with little paper clippings. Her friend looked around, puzzled, and asked what she was doing. So, of course, she had to show him.<\/p>\n
The secret was out. Her friend knew Vejle’s work needed to be displayed. His literal “Oh, I see!” moment<\/strong>\u00a0has led to multiple exhibits of her cut paper pieces. And Vejle is now recognized as one of the most talented artists of psaligraphy, or paper cutting, in the world.<\/p>\n
Stories in Paper<\/h4>\n
Vejle’s work often tells a fairy tale-like story. She says, “When I sit down and go into this flow zone and I’m cutting the paper cuts, the stories come into my head. When I finish the paper cut, the story will be finished as well.”<\/p>\n
The work below was done for The Royal Caf\u00e9, located next to the Royal Copenhagen porcelain factory. The frame of Vejle’s cut paper work is inspired by the mussel pattern decoration on Royal Copenhagen dishes.<\/p>\n
$\"Artistic$
Frank\u2019s view of things the day H.C. Lumbye, 69 birds and a few others<\/em>
settled in the royal tree without permission<\/em>, 2011
300 x 220
Frame cut and folded twice, the rest cut asymmetrically
Image courtesy Karen Bit Vejle<\/p><\/div>\n
When you look closely, the magical story unfolds.<\/p>\n
As the artwork’s title suggests, Frank the mouse lives in this tree (he’s at the bottom of the tree in the photo above). H.C. Lumbye is a Danish composer and inspired this story. The tree is filled with birds, cars, flowers, human figures, and delicate marching ants.<\/p>\n
$\"Artistic$ <\/a>
detail of Frank\u2019s view of things the day H.C. Lumbye, 69 birds and a few others<\/em>
settled in the royal tree without permission,<\/em>\u00a02011
Image by Helle S. Andersen<\/p><\/div>\n
While it’s easy to imagine stories for the different characters, Vejle shares her thoughts about one particular creature:<\/p>\n
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. . . you can notice one ant that stands out from the rest. That is Mogens. Mogens has marched along with the others his whole life, from morning until evening, and now he is very tired of it. He dreams about a new and less orderly life. For several says he has thought of a plan to escape the ranks, and this is the very day the plan will come to fruition—he goes undercover as a wasp.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Intricate Cuts<\/h4>\n
Vejle explains that she used to make several mistakes when she cut her pieces, but now she doesn’t. Nevertheless, whenever she unfolds a piece for the first time to see it, she says, “I wonder what it will look like? Did I manage to achieve the cut I had in mind? It is just as exciting every time—just like opening up an exciting gift.”<\/p>\n
$\"Artistic$
Scarab<\/em>, 2004
43 x 142
Folded one time, symmetrically cut
Image \u00a9 Helle S. Andersen<\/p><\/div>\n
Several companies, including Hilton, Herm\u00e8s, and Porsgrund Porcelain, have taken notice of this artist. She did a window display for the fashion company, and, for the porcelain company, she designed a number of patterns which were transformed into a set of dishes named after her daughter Zeleste.<\/p>\n
$\"Herm\u00e8s$
Herm\u00e8s window display, featuring La beaut\u00e9 est partout,<\/em>
quand on sait regarder les choses<\/em>, 2012
100 x 30 x 100
Image courtesy Karen Bit Vejle<\/p><\/div>\n
In addition, museums around the world have featured her work in an exhibit called “Scissors for a Brush.”<\/p>\n
$\"Karen$
Vejle’s art on display.
From left to right: Festina Lente,<\/em>\u00a02008; Grace,\u00a0<\/em>2007;
Original cutting for a christening blanket,<\/em>\u00a02008
Image \u00a9 Helle S. Andersen<\/p><\/div>\n
$\"ballerina,$
Ballerina Bulldog<\/em>, 2011
Image \u00a9 Bj\u00f8rn Sigurd Hove<\/p><\/div>\n
This gentle Dane, who insists she was born with scissors in her hand,\u00a0shares<\/a>:<\/p>\n
Today everything in the world moves so quickly. But psaligraphy, the art of paper cutting, is an antidote to that world. Paper cutting requires a lot of time and patience, both in creation and experience. If my scissors can make you stop and wonder for just one instant, I think that would be wonderful.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Comment<\/a>\u00a0on this post below, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment\u00a0 here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[207,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-denmark-mappoints","category-art-creative"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40899,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13803\/revisions\/40899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}