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Rather than rely on just one piece of paper, Yulia Brodskaya uses hundreds to create her unique portraits. The paper quilling artist has pioneered a unique style that involves rolling, shaping, and gluing colorful strips of paper to a canvas. These bundles form swirls, patterns, and facial features, which in turn gives these portraits a noticeably three-dimensional quality.
Over the past year, Brodskaya has developed a series in which she portrays the “people of Gaia”—a hopeful vision of what people will be like in the future. To do this, she draws on imagery from the past, looking at different cultures from around the world. “These paper portraits are an attempt to visualize this uplifting version of the future, and most of all this is a personal exploration of how this new reality would feel like, and how it would feel to interact with a human being from this version of the future,” Brodskaya tells My Modern Met.
In her iconic style, Brodskaya layers countless strips of paper on the canvas to slowly construct the faces of these individuals. This involves stacking them in various ways, forming circles, and even braiding them. “This is a future where we, as a collective, have healed our past, released the pain and integrated all the lessons that brought us all here to this moment in time,” Brodskaya explains. Some of the common themes layered within these portraits are the sun and moon, flora, and animals, all of which hint at a future of humanity that is more in tune with our planet.
You can learn more about Brodskaya's paper quilling art by purchasing her book, Painting with Paper, and see what she’s working on next by following her on Instagram.
Paper artist Yulia Brodskaya creates amazing portraits.
She uses a paper quilling technique to layer numerous strips of paper.
Brodskaya bends, folds, stacks, carves, and glues these pieces of paper to her canvas.
This meticulous process helps her create facial features, patterns, and other imagery.
Her latest series of portraits imagines what people will be like in the future.
Brodskaya is inspired by the past and different cultures.
Her vision of the future is one of hope, where people are more unified.
Watch how Brodskaya creates these portraits:
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