papercut study of an illustration by Adrienne Adams
Well, the duvet cover is still not done but I have this on my mantel now. It's from an illustration by Adrienne Adams that I just adore, in Twice Upon A Time. I found myself staring at it a lot and since I was unwilling to rip out the page and frame it, I made this instead.
I found the book (published 1973) at the thrift shop. I confess I just bought it for the illustrations. Really the story is not destined to be a classic (my apologies, Mr. Shapiro, and to anyone for whom this book is a childhood favorite). It's about a story teller named Rambling Richard who finds himself thrown in jail in the boastful city of Gib Gib.
This is the page that I lifted for the diorama. I just love this illustration. Rambling Richard is on his way to the inn to pay for his room with a story called "How The World Shrank To The Size Of A Pea And Was Swallowed By An Oyster". As unlikely as it seems, this is not why he was thrown in jail. I love Adrienne Adams' style and something about this particular illustration just compelled me to tackle it in cut paper - all the right angles, the stepped progression into the distance, the blues, the greens, all the tiny tiny lit windows. Here are some other pages in the book:
The finished piece, framed and on the mantel, so now I can stare at it all the time. The diorama is 11.5 x 11.5 inches and the frame is 20.5 x 20.5 inches, same size as Red. Pardon the swatches of blue paint on the wall there. I'm so excited to be finally picking new paint colors for my living room/dining/kitchen/master bedroom. So long overdue. I can hardly wait for the painter to get started. Oyster-y color in the kitchen, the perfect, perfect blue for the main living/dining (Sherwin Williams Rainwashed), and my bedroom will be (I think) creamy white. One day, after it is all complete and the house is picked up for some reason, I will take photos.