Artist's Statement

Anyone who has done their own framing is aware of the difficulties in cutting matboard. Straight edges and blade holders help to ease cutting matboards to the correct size. But, the thickness of the material can make it difficult to cut accurately and smoothly.

I make all cuts using a blade held at a 45-degree angle. While the blades I use are automatically placed at the correct angle by a holder, keeping the cuts smooth and matching cuts at corners without overcutting is challenging. Since I use a variety of shapes and curves in my designs, the cuts often don't meet at 90-degree angle. So, the matboard cutting tools for cutting standard rectangular mats are only sometimes helpful.

Due to its thickness, matboard is also difficult to cut into specific shapes, especially with a 45-degree angle. Small details are often lost or simply cannot be cut accurately. These challenges have caused me to simplify my designs. Extraneous and distracting detail must be removed. I feel the final design is improved by these modifications.

Each design begins with a sketch or series of sketches surrounding an idea or concept. Once a sketch is where I want it, I begin working out the layers. Each layer is drawn onto tracing paper, beginning with the bottom layer and working up. Each layer must support the layers above it. It must also remain coherent as the same color within the design. (For example, if the same layer defines a hand and hair, it must work in the final design for them to be the same color.) I also continue to simplify and abstract the design as I define the layers. This is where I begin to notice and smooth out areas where I know it won't be possible the cut the matboard exactly as the design was originally drawn.

Once I finalize the layers, I choose the matboard colors to use and begin cutting the design. I begin with the bottom layer, cutting each piece and laying it out on the background. Where spaces are small or odd shapes or angles, the matboard itself shapes the image as it is cut. As I layout the pieces, I see where a layer may need to be adjusted or cut again. Once I'm happy with the layout, I glue the layers. When the glue is dry, the piece is ready for framing.

A design can shift or change at any phase of the process from sketch to final layout. I may even change it during the process of gluing the layers. Occasionally, due to these shifts, the final piece can look quite different from the original design.

Kathryn E. Leventhal-Arnold