A Caterpillar Having Lunch Inspired Me To Start Creating Leaf Cutting Art

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