My name is Eva & I am the human behind Paper Caper Co.
Papercutting found me when I needed it most, when I was working in the field of intimate partner violence prevention and intervention. In my work at the local high school, in training new advocates, and with the crisis line, I was constantly surrounded by stories of violence and pain, of people stuck in cycles of abuse, some resulting in death.
Living in violent situations makes us distrust ourselves and our intuition. People who have experienced trauma in both the physical and mental sense are more likely to doubt their gut and their ability to make decisions. We each know what is best for us deep down, but we must be connected to ourselves to understand what that is. And that is the work I love to do, helping people get connected back to themselves.
Enter Papercutting: I sat down one day after work with a wood carving set and a piece of printer paper. I started cutting something I drew out and instantly I felt a sense of peace of mind that I hadn’t felt in years. It was like everything was quiet and I could breathe and think again.
At the time I didn’t think art was a way to make a living, so I just kept kind of doing it in the background as I worked for a myriad of non-profits in the helping world. But as I became more and more burnt out, I realized I had to get to that mentally still place more often.
At some point I quit my full-time job. I leaned into my art and people started paying me for it. (I know, wild.) I knew nothing about being an artist full-time, but I learned all I could. I read books & took online classes. I hired mentors that I looked up to & recognized had unique information that I was without. As with all things IT’S OKAY TO ASK FOR HELP. Don’t suffer alone. Ever.
Through it all, I met so many cool artists and people who were also just trying to bring some beauty and good into the world. I took a residency on South Padre Island, an hour from where I grew up in Brownsville, TX, and they helped me get to a place where I could open my own art studio and gallery.
Paper Caper Co is a place of refuge and rest. It was birthed out of a need to take care of my mind and my body. It was created out of a hope to do life differently. What if we can actually live in mentally healthy places where we honor our bodies and minds and our really cool abilities? What if we are being fed over-working, burnout, and conformity, but there is another way to live?
Artist Statement
A lot of my work is about cycles and ecosystems, inside and outside of us. As I learn more and more about what and who is growing and living around me, I find my place in the tapestry of it all. Understanding ecology connects me to the deepest spirituality I’ve ever known, that of being a part of something alive that is moving, growing, shifting, dying, and birthing. When we see ourselves as something a part of and not separate from, we begin to understand the Universe & how all of this works.
In a papercutting, everything is connected. The lines cut out of paper hold everything together, they are all connected, much like we are all connected, to each other & the Earth. Our atoms are made of star stuff. Trees breathe out & we breathe in. The water that makes up so much of us becomes oceans & hurricanes & clouds. We decompose to make way for those coming after. My work dances with themes of science & spirituality, of exploration and wonder, of finding joy in the cyclicality & impermanence of it all. It finds beauty in the mundane & strange.
Papercutting was and is a self-care ritual for me with its focused precision & meditative repetition. I encourage others to find their own artistic rituals for mental health maintenance, especially those in helping professions or experiencing burnout like myself.
