Hand- drawn, hand-cut design. Every Bird Mafia design begins as cut paper imagined, drawn, and cut by artist Emily Brown.
Hand- drawn, hand-cut design. Every Bird Mafia design begins as cut paper imagined, drawn, and cut by artist Emily Brown.
Every papercut begins with drawing, never printing or tracing.
Though digital software is necessary for the needs of today’s business and communication, Emily believes it doesn’t belong in her fine art. Maintaining the tactile nature of papercutting is what sets the medium apart in a digital age.
Each piece is then hand-cut with a precision knife. No lasers. No die cut. No short cuts. Just focus, patience, and a practiced hand.
EMILY “E L” BROWN grew up in the center of California, midway between all the cities anyone has ever heard of. In 2007, Emily borrowed her partner/husband’s xacto knife, and soon after, what started as “playing” with papercutting turned to devotion. Since then, she has honed her papercutting skills, shown her work in galleries from California to New Hampshire, been featured in print, ad campaigns, an artist spotlight series, and a stop-motion short, and built her company, Bird Mafia, to share her art and love for papercut design. Today, she lives in Portland, Oregon where she spends her days papercutting, hiking, and befriending neighborhood cats.
