PAPER AS MUSE

Eckmanfineart.com

Husband and wife team, Patty and Allen Eckman,

are the talented artists

behind this astounding ‘Cast Paper Sculpture’

They have been making these amazing creations since 1987. Their studio, located in Rapid City, North Dakota, has developed a unique process: Paper pulp is put into clay moulds and pressurized to remove water. The hard, light-weight pieces are removed. Then, Patty and Allen, painstakingly, add detailed ‘finishings’ with a wide range of tools. Their art depicts traditional scenes from Native American history of the Cherokees. Allen’s great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee. Their family, on both sides, admire the Native Americans.

Patty and Allen point out that their paper technique should not be confused with papier mache. The two mediums are completely different, "These sculptures are posed as standing nude figures and limited detailed animals with no ears, tails or hair. We transform them by sculpting on top of them - creating detail with soft and hard paper, we make in various thicknesses and textures.”

"We have really enjoyed the development of our fine art techniques over the years and have created a process that is worth sharing. There are many artists and sculptors who we believe will enjoy this medium as much as we have."

“I want to teach artists everything I know in order for each artist to reach his or her God-given ability. We are developing, step by step, "Project Lessons" on DVD to do this. We have a registered trademark on file at the USPTO called Eckman Method which includes sculpture materials (casts, paper, and bonding agent) tools and instruction on DVD and print. There are 3 programs in development:

1."Patty's Flowers" : A program that will take an artist from beginning level to intermediate to advance and beyond to expert and master levels, as far as the God-given ability of the artist will allow. This is a progressive program. The artist can learn with our casts and our paper to do flowers, birds, animals figures and backgrounds. We will also teach mold-making, framing and how to photograph and market their pieces.

2. "Eckman Method": This program is for advanced artists who want to jump in and do challenging pieces while they learn with the Eckman Method. We provide: a "Starter Cast" of figures and animals with DVD instruction, kits in "Project Lesson" form with tools, or they can just use a "Starter Cast" and paper to create on their own, after some prior instruction.

3."Your Molds and the Eckman Method"-: A program for advanced artists who want to use their own molds for bronze, ceramic, resin etc. and complete their pieces in museum-quality cast paper sculpture, with more detail. The artists will be instructed using a DVD. The artist will watch me use one of my bronze molds to recreate the piece in paper with more detail. We show them how to cast in our pulp and use our paper and bonding agent.

"If you want to do some more advance sculpture with figures and animals, I have some projects and a DVD that will help you with that too. You need to call our Studio to order as we don't have our online store up yet. Please call us at: 605-343-4252.”

 

See Patty and Allen's work and learn about their technique at: www.eckmanfineart.com