
15Kviews
A Caterpillar Having Lunch Inspired Me To Start Creating Leaf Cutting Art
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My name is Lorenzo M. Durán, I was born in Spain, in 1969. Although I had been drawing, painting and sculpting little things since I was a kid, I decided to become a full-time artist when parenthood, unemployment, and midlife crisis visited me (at the same time!) in 2006, pushing me to think about what I had done with my professional life and what I would really want to do with it. Fortunately, I was given lots of time to think deeply about it all and decided to combine 2 of my true passions: Art and Nature.
First I started painting some oils, but all of the sudden I saw a caterpillar having lunch (a leaf) and the trace left behind its body suggested that I could cut my designs on tree leaves with a scalpel, just as many artists had been doing in paper cutting art. That idea became an obsession and from 2006-2008 I developed a technique to meet my goal. A couple of years later (2010-2011) my leaf cutting artwork called many people's attention, and all of the sudden my first pieces appeared in lots of media (Daily Mail, Huffington Post, BBC, El Mundo, etc.), some BoredPada stuff also published a couple of posts (thanks!). My wife and I have raised our daughter (who’s now 10) working together in the creative field, and I'm thankful for those 3 things that pushed me to take this way.
From those first leaf cuttings my work has evolved in several directions until now, but my passion for Nature and Art has remained through all the way. Here I post some of my first pieces and other most recently finished.
More info: lorenzomanuelduran.es
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Love it!!! Plants provide us with Oxygen, our lungs use Oxygen to distribute it to the body with the heart. Great job!!
Wow! It took me a while to see that it was a cutout of the same leaf!
These are amazing. Do you treat the leaves with something so they don't fall apart later?
Thank you! I've developed a technique to cut them properly and once they are finished I may use a wax varnish or not, depending on the species, but I certainly frame them to be pressed and preserved for years (my oldest work has remained intact hanging on my living-room for about 10 years now) and I know of some leaf artworks preserved for centuries... tree leaves are much stronger than they look like!
That makes me happy! Love your patient work :)
This person must be going places, that's one of the best art lists I've seen so far!
Thanks!
Oh. My. GAWD!! SO happy you were inspired! HEAVENLY inspired no doubt! Because your work is DIVINE!
Thank you so much!
These are amazing. Do you treat the leaves with something so they don't fall apart later?
Thank you! I've developed a technique to cut them properly and once they are finished I may use a wax varnish or not, depending on the species, but I certainly frame them to be pressed and preserved for years (my oldest work has remained intact hanging on my living-room for about 10 years now) and I know of some leaf artworks preserved for centuries... tree leaves are much stronger than they look like!
That makes me happy! Love your patient work :)
This person must be going places, that's one of the best art lists I've seen so far!
Thanks!
Oh. My. GAWD!! SO happy you were inspired! HEAVENLY inspired no doubt! Because your work is DIVINE!
Thank you so much!