Melanie Jorissen will be the featured artist at Gallery North in April.  Jorissen’s exhibit showcases her unique paper art creations. 

     Melanie Jorissen designs her own patterns depicting a variety of subjects including birds in flight, expressive animal portraits, and mystical images of winged horses and unicorns. All of her creations are 3-dimensional and utilize rich textures and life-like detail.  “I use several art techniques when creating my pieces, including paper quilling, paper sculpture, collage, watercolors, and stamping techniques,” she explains. Paper quilling, the core of her process, is an ancient decorative art form known to have been used by 13^th century European monks who quilled remnants of bibles into elaborate religious images. 

     Jorissen says that she grew up in an artistic family and has experimented with a variety of art and craft techniques over the years.  Her current love of quilling started 10 years ago when she made her first snowflake after following directions in a magazine article.  “I cut small strips of paper by hand and used make-shift tools to form the quills for the design.  I was thrilled with the results so I continued.  At first I used patterns developed specifically for quilling, then I began improvising by using patterns developed for other materials, and eventually, I developed my own designs and techniques.”