Read Pulp faction, a profile of Ellen's work and techniques in the Montgomery Gazette.
Ellen Mears Kennedy's artwork is constructed of hundreds of duble-sided papers, all hand-made in her studio from pigmented pulp. Each paper has a left and right side that displays a unique shade. When the paper is folded, one color shows on the left side and a second color shows on the right. As viewers walk past each construction, the colors subtly change as they see alternating sides of the design - the hues shift, growing darker or lighter, depending on the observers' positions. The design is always in motion. The geometry of intersecting color patterns is softened by the texture of each paper's deckled edge and made fluid by the viewers' movement.
Each completed art work contains hundreds of pieces of paper in graduate sizes and colors.
All paper starts with the pulp. The first step for making the paper is to beat and blend cotton fiber and abaca fiver, a plant from the Philippines. The pulp is pigmented and the long paper sheets are formed: one color of pulp on the front and as second color on the back . In some of these papers there is also a left and right color in the paper so one color shows on the left sie of the fold and another color on the right. The paired colors are then laminated together in a press.
After pressing, the papers are folded in half and hung to dry in the 400 year old tradition of Western papermaking. This hanging method accentuates the eccentricities of handmade paper which buckle and curl in drying.
The final step is to attach these hundreds of paper sheets to a linen backing forming intersecting patterns colorful and geometric.