lisa nilsson artist biography

Lisa Nilsson

TISSUE SERIES: Anatomical Cross-Sections in Paper

The pieces that comprise Lisa Nilsson’s “Tissue Series” are made of Japanese mulberry paper and the gilded edges of old books. They are constructed by a technique of rolling and shaping narrow strips of paper called quilling or paper filigree. Quilling was said to have been first practiced by Renaissance nuns and monks who made artistic use of the gilded edges of worn out bibles, and later by 18 th century ladies who made artistic use of lots of free time. Lisa finds quilling exquisitely satisfying for rendering the densely squished and lovely internal landscape of the human body in cross-section.

Photography by John Polak

Slice of Life: Artistic Cross Sections of the Human Body

Artist Lisa Nilsson creates elaborate anatomical illustrations from thin strips of paper

Megan Gambino

Senior Editor

Female Torso, by Lisa Nilsson. Photo by John Polak.

Lisa Nilsson was on an antiquing trip three or four years ago when a gilt crucifix caught her eye. The cross was crafted using a Renaissance-era technique called quilling, where thin paper is rolled to form different shapes and patterns.

“I thought it was really beautiful, so I made a couple of small, abstract gilt pieces,” says Nilsson, an artist based in North Adams, Massachusetts. She incorporated these first forays in quilling into her mixed media assemblages.

Almost serendipitously, as Nilsson was teaching herself to mold and shape the strips of Japanese mulberry paper, a friend sent her a century-old, hand-colored photograph of a cross section of a human torso from a French medical book. “I have always been interested in scientific and biological imagery,” says the artist. “This image was really inspiring.”

Abdomen, by Lisa Nilsson. Photo by John Polak.

In the cross section, Nilsson saw many of the shapes that she had already been coiling and building. The quilling technique, she thought, with its “squeezing shapes into a cavity,” certainly lent itself to her subject matter. She could make tiny tubes and squish them together to fill the many different spaces in the body—lungs, vertebrae, pelvic bones and muscles.

Her first anatomical paper sculpture, Female Torso (shown at top), is a near-direct translation of the French medical image.

Head II, by Lisa Nilsson. Photo by John Polak.

Nilsson went on to create an entire Tissue Series , which offers artistic slices, literally, of male and female bodies: a cross section of a head at eye level (above), another of a chest just above a man’s arm pits (below) and one of an abdomen at navel height, to name a few.

Nilsson began exhibiting her paper sculptures at galleries and museums. “The two words that I heard most often to describe the work were ‘beautiful,’ which is always nice to hear, and…’creepy,’ ” she said in a talk at  TEDMED , an annual conference focusing on health and medicine. The artist admits that she never found the project disturbing. “I was so enthralled with the aesthetic possibilities I saw in cross sections, I had kind of overlooked the idea that viewing the body in this sort of ‘slice of deli meat’ fashion could be a bit unsettling to people,” she said.

Thorax, by Lisa Nilsson. Photo by John Polak.

Viewers come in close, at first, she says. “They would see the piece as an intriguing handmade object and put their noses up to the glass and enjoy the subtle surprise that it is made of paper,” she says, in the TEDMED lecture. Up close, a portion of the lacy, intricate sculpture appears abstract. “Then, people would typically back away, and they would be curious about what region of the body they were looking at….They would usually start to identify familiar anatomical landmarks.” The heart, perhaps, or the ribcage.

When making a paper sculpture, Nilsson starts with medical images, often culled from the Visible Human Project , a National Library of Medicine initiative that collected anatomical images from one male and one female cadaver. She usually consults illustrations of specific parts of the body in medical textbooks as well, to better understand what it is she is seeing in the Visible Human cross sections. “My background is in illustration”—she has a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design—”so I am used to combining sources and just being resourceful in getting all of the visual information I need to say what I want to say,” she says.

Head and Torso, by Lisa Nilsson. Photo by John Polak.

Nilsson creates a composite image from these sources and adheres it to a base of styrofoam insulation. The two-dimensional image serves as a guide for her three-dimensional paper sculpture; she quills in between the lines, much like one colors in a coloring book.

“I often start in the center and work out,” says Nilsson. She builds a small quilling unit, pins it to the styrofoam base and then glues it to its neighbor. “It is almost like putting a puzzle together, where each new piece is connected to its predecessor,” she adds. Working in this “tweezery” technique, as the artist calls it, requires some serious patience. A sculpture can take anywhere from two weeks to two months to complete. But, Nilsson says, “It is so addictive. It is really neat to see it grow and fill in.”

There is a basic vocabulary of shapes in quilling. “I have really tried to push that,” says Nilsson. “One of the things I don’t like about a lot of quilling that I see is that the mark is too repetitious. It is curlicue, curlicue, curlicue. I really try to mix that up.” Follow the individual strands of paper in one of her sculptures and you will see tubes, spirals, crinkled fans and teardrops.

Male Torso, by Lisa Nilsson. Photo by John Polak.

When the sculpture is finished, and all the pins have migrated to the periphery, Nilsson paints the back with a bookbinder’s glue to reinforce it. She displays her cross sections in velvet-lined shadow boxes. “I really like them to read as objects rather than images. I like the trompe-l’oeil effect, that you think you might be actually looking at a 1/4-inch slice of a body,” says Nilsson. “The box, to me, suggests object and frame would suggest an image. The decorative boxes also say that this is a precious object.”

Many medical professionals have taken an interest in Nilsson’s work. “It feels like an homage, I think, to them, rather than that I am trivializing something that they do that is so much more important,” she says, with a humble laugh. Doctors have sent her images, and anatomists have invited her to their labs. She even has a new pen pal—a dissector for Gunther von Hagens’ Body Worlds , a touring (and somewhat startling!) exhibition of preserved human bodies.

Angelico, by Lisa Nilsson. Photo by John Polak.

The connections Nilsson has made in the medical community have proven to be quite helpful. “Where does this particular anatomical structure end and where does the next one begin? Sometimes it is not all that clear-cut,” says the artist. As she works, questions inevitably arise, and she seeks out anatomists for answers. “Sometimes I want to know what is a general anatomical structure and what is an idiosyncrasy of the particular individual I am looking at. Rib cages. How much variance in shape is there? Am I overemphasizing this ? I am always wondering, am I seeing this accurately? Am I reading this right?”

Ultimately, Nilsson hopes that her works familiarize people with the internal landscape of the human body—the “basic lay of the land,” she says. “Everything is tidily squished in there in this package that is graphically beautiful and also highly functional,” she adds. “To me, the shapes are endlessly interesting. There is just the right amount of symmetry and asymmetry.”

Two of Nilsson’s latest pieces will be featured in “Teaching the Body: Artistic Anatomy in the American Academy, from Copley, Rimmer and Eakins to Contemporary Artists,” a three-month exhibition opening at the Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery on January 31. 

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Six Years In the Making, the Elaborate ‘Grand Jardin’ by Lisa Nilsson Pushes the Boundaries of Paper

Lisa Nilsson ( previously ) has spent years perfecting a technique known as quilling  in which thin strips of paper are rolled into coils and then pinched and nudged into shape in a process she likens to completing a puzzle. With a history thought to extend back to Ancient Egypt, the practice rose to more recent popularity in 18th century Europe. Narrow edges of gilt book pages were a popular material, creating metallic surfaces when rolled into place.

In her most recent work, “Grand Jardin,” Nilsson has expanded upon this traditional method by building up more dense applications of the medium and assembling on a much bigger scale. Combining shimmering gold pieces with vivid hues of Japanese mulberry paper across the surface, the ubiquitous material transforms into a remarkable topography.

Taking several years to complete, she paid painstaking attention to the complexities and details of the design, balancing intricate organic shapes with precise geometric patterns, all while preserving the composition’s overall symmetry. “The phases of my creative process—as it progressed from the initial spark of inspiration to settling in to work, to decision-making and problem solving, to finding flow, losing flow and finding it again, to commitment and renewal of commitment—were repeated many times over the six years and within the context of widely varying moods,” she tells Colossal.

Brimming with floral motifs and butterflies and contained within an ornate border, the lush details of “Grand Jardin” emerge in the textures of each group of coils and in the intricate shapes of the flowers and foliage. Inspired by the patterns and process of making Persian rugs, Nilsson sees parallels between weaving and quilling, and is amused by the nature of improvisation in a process that is so slow-moving and meticulous. “Having a working relationship with one piece for such a long period of time brought novel thoughts and emotions and required new things of me as an artist and as a person,” she says.

You can find more information on Nilsson’s website .

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Body tissues: slices of life in paper

19 April 2012

Deli-sliced human bodies have never been so beautiful. In her Tissue Series, Lisa Nilsson uses finely rolled paper in a technique called quilling to create anatomically correct artworks. “I find quilling exquisitely satisfying for rendering the densely squished and lovely internal landscape of the human body in cross section,” she says. Caroline Morley

Read more: “ A slice of life in finely furled paper “

Looking for anatomical accuracy, Nilsson used images from the US National Institutes of Health’s Visible Human Project to create artworks. As you can see in this detail from a work inspired by a cross section of a human head, the papers are natural colours, matched to the photographs of slices of frozen cadavers. (All photography by John Polak)

This section through the abdomen shows just how many different systems are jumbled together. We can see the spinal cord protected by a vertebra, the kidneys, the aorta, sections through various parts of the winding intestines, as well as the muscles, fat and connective tissue that holds it all together.

Zooming in on the abdomen image, we can see the tiny rolls of Japanese mulberry paper for the internal organs and the gilded edges of old books in the bones. Using different rolling and shaping techniques, she has mimicked the porous texture of the bone and the striated texture of the back muscles.

Like these two vertical sections for female (top) and male torsos, Nilsson’s paper artworks are all presented in boxes. Here we can see the subtle differences in the male and female anatomy, not only in the pelvic area but even the general outline of the torso, which is more muscular in the male and more slender in the female.

Despite appearances, our bodies are far from symmetrical. Even externally, most people tend to have one ear higher than the other or one foot larger than the other – which makes buying shoes or glasses a bit of a challenge. Nilsson preserves these irregularities in her work: in this life-sized slice through the chest, you can see that one of the person’s shoulders is lower than the other. One arm is attached to the body whereas the other hangs free.

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Lisa Nilsson: Connective Tissue

July 13, 2017 – January 4, 2018

In her  Tissue Series , Lisa Nilsson creates ornate quilled paper constructions that explore the complex geography of the human anatomy.  Working directly from images of transverse, coronal and sagittal cross sections from medical sources, she finds a delicate balance between art and anatomic accuracy, beauty and the grotesque.

The forms, made from Japanese mulberry paper and the gilt edges of old books, are rendered in a technique of rolled and shaped paper called quilling or paper filigree. The technique, first practiced by Renaissance nuns and monks and later by aristocratic women in the 16th-18th centuries, finds a contemporary relevance in Nilsson’s work.

Angelico Lisa Nilsson

The fleshy, malleable quality struck me early on. It was the paper’s willingness to conform in shape to fill a cavity and its springy, bouncy quality when coiled that made me think of flesh and anatomy. In making these sculptures I aspire to a treatment of the body that combines the sensual pleasure and graphic strength of an art object, the informative and analytical approach of a scientific specimen, as well as the reverential and devotional nature of a religious reliquary.

– Lisa Nilsson

Artwork from the exhibition.

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ART THE SCIENCE's

CREATORS – Lisa Nilsson

In ALL , CREATORS by Alex Pedersen November 9, 2016

Name: Lisa Nilsson

Which came first in your life, the science or the art?

The art came first in my life.  I graduated from art school in 1985, majored in illustration and worked as an illustrator for many years before my art making overlapped with science.  In 2010, I first started making work inspired by anatomy and also became a certified medical assistant.  Though I never worked in a doctor’s office, my classes in anatomy were very helpful in making the works in the “Tissue Series”.

Shoulders (Detail)

Which sciences relate to your art practice? 

For about five years I focused on anatomical imagery and in particular, anatomical cross-sections as my subject matter.

What materials do you use to create your artworks?

I use paper, Japanese mulberry paper and paper with edge gilding and a craft technique called quilling.  I first started experimenting with quilling while making box-like assemblages (these can be seen on my website under “ Boxes “) that combined many different materials and techniques.  I added quilling to my repertoire after seeing an antique piece of quilling in a junk shop.  Then a friend shared an image of an anatomical cross-section with me (more specifically, the image from Doyen that inspired my first piece “Female Torso”).  I saw in the image some of the textures and shapes that were possible to make with coiled paper.  From that first piece I continued to expand, develop and research this exploration of cross-sections in paper and called the resulting body of work “Tissue Series”.

Artwork/Exhibition you are most proud of:

I’m most proud of a solo show called “Connective Tissue” of my anatomical works at Pavel Zoubok Gallery in NYC in October of 2013.  This was the first time that “Tissue Series” was shown in it’s entirety.  I have an upcoming show of the same body of work scheduled for the summer of 2017 at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia.

Female Thorax

Female Thorax (Detail)

The works I’m most pleased with are “Angelico” because of it’s combination of the decorative (the gilt halo) and the anatomical (the cross-section of the head) and my newer work, that is inspired by the decorative arts.  I am currently working with geometric designs, abstracted plant and flower forms and insects (see the images under “ Tapis Series ” on my website).

Which scientists and/or artists inspire and/or have influenced you?

I was especially inspired by the images of cross-sections that comprise the data base of the “ Visible Human Project “.  They are actual photographs of two cadavers that were prepared and ground down incrementally and photographed in great detail.  I was also inspired by the images of cross-sections in historical medical texts.  The two I’ve looked at most are the lovely lithographs in Wilhelm Braune’s “Topographisch-anatomischer Atlas” and those in the “Atlas d’anatomie topographique” by Eugène-Louis Doyen.

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About the Author

Alex Pedersen

Alex is a critical scholar and social scientist. During her degrees, Alex recognized a dearth of knowledge transfer between the academy and the general public. To address this gap, she extends her empirical research through multiple mediums including: publications, formal lectures, public speaking events, radio, theatre and photography. In diversifying access to her research, Alex honed a unique set of skills to plan, design and produce events for a wide variety of audiences. To date, she was responsible for several successful lecture series, community events and fundraisers across diverse settings. Most notably, Alex organized and implemented the 2015 Chancellor Dunning Trust Lectureship and was an advisor for the “Free Queen’s” Steering Committee (an initiative encouraging graduates to bring their work to the wider public). In addition, she has written numerous successful grant applications. An activist at heart, Alex advocates for critical thinking in and beyond academic institutions.

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About Lisa Nilsson

Lisa Nilsson is a visual artist who grew up in Avon, Massachusetts. She found early inspiration in the makers-of-things in her family, including her father, a retired graphic designer, and his brother, an illustrator. Members of her family sewed, painted houses and watercolors, repaired car bodies, and mixed colors for false teeth.

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Quilled Paper "Carpet" Mimics the Exquisite Details of an Ornamental Rug

Artist  Lisa Nilsson ‘s body of work is united by a common thread of intricacy and breathtaking detail. Jardin and Gospel are the newest additions to her Tapis Series ,  which includes Japanese mulberry and gilt-edged quilled strips of paper arranged into remarkable arrays of colors and patterns that are a testament to her amazing abilities. Starting from the center and working progressively outwards, Nilsson's tedious paper creations can take several months to complete, but the final results are profoundly stunning.

Jardin , the most ambitious piece the artist has completed to date, was inspired by the color and composition of an Islamic carpet. The ornate floral forms were improvised in the 8 months it took to complete the 27? by 34? inch frame, woven symmetrically into the rich red-wine tones. The second piece, Gospel , was created using tightly rolled gilt-edged papers to resemble a religious book cover. The golden paper and detailed designs framed in black truly seem to protect words of worship, hidden behind the artistic casing.

Working with the interactions between positive and negative space, Nilsson's tight paper coils do all the work as amazing shapes emerge out of the tiny strips of paper. Through the series, Nilsson seeks to explore the commonality she shares with other makers of decorative objects around the world. Complex textures and curves form captivating final compositions in her ever-growing portfolio.

Above: Jardin

Jardin detail

Gospel detail

Lisa Nilsson: Website via [ Colossal ]

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Lisa Nilsson: Pulp Anatomy

Science and art have long been relegated to the left and right brain respectively: two distinct modes of theory that confound the possibility for coexistence.  pragmatism is pitted against creativity and order contends with unpredictability.  although the technical practice of fine art is often analogous to a scientific one, art is consumed as though it were a ritual guided only by the subconscious.  the artist and the scientist aren’t necessarily disparate.   lisa nilsson ‘s quilled paper works are created with a surgeon’s dexterity and focus.  the artist unravels her process of constructing and mending bone and organs out of paper..

Installation Magazine:  The complexities of human anatomy guide your practice.  By manipulating paper, a medium that is as universal as the anatomy that makes up each and every one of us, you reveal the interior mystery of our bodies and create a metaphorical connective tissue between the audience and your work.  Aside from your fascination with anatomy, do you feel that your work is guided by science?

Lisa Nilsson: Attention to detail and careful observation are, for me, a means of practicing devotion, a practice common to the scientists and makers of religious art that I admire.  I am inspired, aesthetically, by scientific imagery and objects.  My approach to my work is “play-scientific.” I use tweezers and scalpels and pretend I’m a surgeon from time to time, but without any of the intense responsibility of the real thing, for which I would be decidedly ill-suited.

Paper is a fragile medium that possesses a meditative quality.  The value of paper is in many ways determined by the message that it bears.  

The early quilled reliquaries that I admire were made by nuns who did not have access to more expensive materials, but who could imbue inexpensive materials with a lavish value through their devotion of time and careful, detailed art making.  I employ gilt paper to depict the bones and go to some lengths to make enclosures for the finished works that create a reverential and precious atmosphere.

What message do you hope to communicate? How should the audience read your work?

I like my finished works to hover somewhere in between a reliquary and a scientific specimen.

Which artists have influenced your practice?

I was most inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell and Robert Rauschenberg.  I find now that I am inspired equally by religious art objects (mainly reliquaries that typically contain anatomical specimens- finger bones of saints, etc.) and by scientific objects (mainly anatomical models and specimens.)

Devotion is a central theme in your work, whether it alludes to the history of paper quilling or the commitment that you have made to the material.  How did you determine that paper quilling was the appropriate technique to achieve your vision?

I enjoy the humble material quality of paper.  The fragility of the paper I use and the intricacy of the technique of quilling are ideally suited for representing anatomy.  I encountered a quilled piece of religious art in a junk antique store.  I was inspired by this piece, and shortly I included a few small, abstract quilled pieces in assemblage.  I enjoyed the way I could make small coiled units out of strips of paper and then enclose and encircle them with an additional strip and then squish and shape this new composite shape.  Also, I could create a “cavity” and squeeze coils into it until it was full.

Do you ever use scientific journals as a reference?

A friend sent me a link to an image of a hand-colored photograph of a coronal section of a torso from an old French anatomy text.  I saw the shapes and textures I was experimenting with in my little abstract quilled pieces in this image and it became the point of departure for my first anatomical cross-section in paper.  I had intended to include it in an assemblage, but the scale was too big and it wanted to be a stand-alone.  I began researching more images of cross-sections and the work has evolved from there.

Walk me through the process of quilling paper.  The effect is extraordinary and imagine it is rather time consuming.  Approximately how long did it take to construct the series?

I start with a paper print-out of my source image (sometimes a composite of several images, sometimes just one) and thumb tack it to a piece of styrofoam insulation as a backing board.  I cut 1/4 strips of Japanese mulberry paper with a paper cutter.  I typically start in some central location, often a bone, and make coils by winding the paper strips around pins or needles or drill bits and then pinch them into the desired shape.  I glue shapes onto shapes, attaching each to its neighbor and pin them in place along the periphery of the pieces.  It grows much in the way a puzzle comes together.  When the thrilling moment arrives and the final piece is in place, I remove the pins and turn the entire piece over (it has a tendency to spread a bit– scary!.)  I re-pin the outer edge to re-establish the overall shape I desire, then I brush the entire back of the piece with PVA (book binder’s glue.)  The piece now has enough rigidity to be gingerly moved about.  I then spend a few days making a box-enclosure for the piece.

What should our readers be on the lookout for in regards to future projects?

I am currently working on a coronal section of a male figure that starts at the top of the head and ends at about mid-thigh.  I’ll be having a show that opens on October 10, 2013 at Pavel Zoubok Gallery in New York City.

All images © of the artist

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Artist Lisa Nilsson Paper Islamic Quilling Carpets

Lisa nilsson creates magnificent carpets from paper.

The art of paper quilling is believed to have begun in the 15th century. It was created by French and Italian nuns to decorate special religious objects. Lisa Nilsson is a contemporary artist who takes this art form to new levels, creating magnificent renditions of Persian carpets using only compact coils of Japanese mulberry paper.

Nilsson takes her inspiration from ancient texts and Islamic carpets . The pieces are intricate, and it takes her about eight months to complete a work that fills a 27 x 34-inch frame. She says that much of the work is improvised, but it is difficult to see because the works appear to be carefully planned.

The quill-work carpets that Nilsson creates are as beautiful and transcendent as the woven carpets that inspired them. The colors are rich and warm , using familiar carpet patterns such as medallions , pendants, formal corners, and complex, layered borders. From a distance, it is difficult to see the difference between one of her paper creations and a real Oriental rug .

Lisa Nilsson: Inspired by Historical Roots

The inspiration for Nilsson’s work draws from historical sources in both the media used and the subject matter. Paper quilling began in the 14th century as a way for nuns to decorate sacred objects cheaply. The work was meant to mimic wrought iron and carved ivory. Often, the paper would be gilded so that you could barely see the difference between the real metal and the quilled work.

Quilling reached its peak in popularity in 18th century England when young ladies were taught the art as an appropriate pastime, second only to embroidery. It was taught in schools and was considered a popular leisure activity that was not too “taxing” on the mind.

The art of making pile carpets has been around for several thousand years, but it reached its artistic peak in the 15th century. The rulers of the Safavid Dynasty in Persia established schools and a formal weaving industry to create the splendid works of art that graced the floors and walls of palaces, mosques, and the homes of the aristocracy. It was during this time that many traditional patterns and designs that Nilsson draws upon were created.

The quilled paper artwork of Lisa Nilsson combines two mediums that were different worlds from a historical perspective. Her use of these familiar mediums creates a new expressive outlet for both of these mediums. One has to agree that the results are mesmerizing.

Life and Work of Lisa Nilsson

Nilsson was born in 1963 in Massachusetts. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1985. Creating things came naturally, as she grew up in a family of creators who sewed, painted, worked with watercolors and mixed colors for false teeth. Her father was a graphic designer, and her brother was an illustrator.

Her first job after graduation from art schools was as an illustrator for American Greetings. She later worked as a freelance illustrator for Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, and the Utne Reader. Later, she moved to North Adams, Massachusetts, to live and work in a renovated textile mill with other working artists. It was here that she began making small-scale works from assembled pieces. This led to her first show at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2010.

In 2010, Nilsson took an extended leave from art to attend a medical assisting program at a local technical school. This added to her lifelong interest in the human body and how the various parts interconnect. It was during this time when Nilsson began working with quilled paper as a medium.

She first discovered quilling when she found a Victorian quilled piece in a junk shop, and she liked the way the quilled paper shapes behaved as a medium. The piece was an ornate cross, and she was fascinated by the design.

Since that time, the artist has taken the quilled paper to entirely new levels of artistry and detail. She now has pieces in galleries and shows across the country . She has done solo shows at Pavel Zoubok Fine Art in New York and has had a booth at EXPO Chicago 2017. Nilsson’s two most famous series are the Persian carpets, many of which now reside in private collections, and her anatomical series. In this series, the artist recreated anatomical cross-section in accurate detail using quilled paper.

Her carpets were created for a series entitled “Tapis,” which is the French word for tapestry . From a distance, her amazing creations look just like a Persian carpet. It is not until you get up close that you realize that the “carpet” is created from carefully coiled pieces of paper.

The Paper Quilling Process of Artist Lisa Nilsson

The process for making these extraordinary quilled paper pieces begins with carefully curling and crimping quarter-inch strips of mulberry paper and then crimping and bending them into shapes. All of the pieces start from the center and work outward. Each of the sections is arranged, and the exquisite patterns soon begin to emerge.

Rather than starting with a preconceived plan, Nilsson allows the process to guide her, with each layer emerging as a result of the previous one. The process is tedious and time-consuming. Each one takes months to complete. One of the more fascinating characteristics of Nilsson’s work is that you can find intricate, swirling shapes in the negative spaces and backgrounds of the creations that add another dimension to the work. The final piece is surrounded by a rectangular frame.

Her idea to create the “Tapis” series began when she was looking at auction-house catalogs and was inspired by the beautiful Persian carpets. At that time, she was working on a series of anatomical pieces and wanted a break. She was drawn to the structure of the central medallions of the carpets. She was also drawn to the structured approach of the carpet artist with the formal corners, pendants, and series of borders.

She began to see the designs for the various components that fit together to create the whole. This is what attracted her to the idea of combining the intricate quilled shapes and the art of Persian carpets. What she likes most about the carpets is watching them evolve over time and how each little piece fits into the whole.

Nilsson is not a person who tends to plan her life too far ahead, but she does see allowing this new geometric form continuing to evolve over time. As for the rest of us, we will continue to enjoy her work and the magnificent carpets that inspire it. We will just have to wait and see how Nilsson’s work evolves next.

This art blog about artist Lisa Nilsson and her Islamic paper quilling Islamic carpets was published by Nazmiyal Antique Rugs .

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ArtSake - New work & the creative process

Studio Views: Lisa Nilsson

July 18, 2011 9 Comments

Lisa Nilsson ‘s Tissue Series , currently on exhibit at the Lavender Door Gallery in Stockbridge, depicts anatomical cross sections, created from rolled paper.

How did she come to make this work, this way? We asked the artist for a look into her work space, and into the history and process behind this enthralling series.

I was out “junking” and came across an antique quilled piece of religious art. It was a very fancy filigreed crucifix-gilt. I later learned that nuns and monks used edges of old bibles to make pieces like this. I incorporated the technique into some assemblages I had been making that contained many different found and made elements. Around this time I encountered a French hand-colored print of an anatomical cross section. I loved the colors and shapes and felt that the way paper behaves when rolled and shaped in quilling could work very well in representing what I saw in the anatomical print.

I started creating anatomical cross sections made of Japanese mulberry paper and the gilded edges of old books, using that same quilling (or paper filigree) technique.

Here I’m just getting started on a new piece. I build the work over an image or drawing, pinning parts to a piece of Styrofoam insulation (probably the single most useful and versatile material in my studio). I tend to work from the center out. When the piece is finished, I turn it over and brush the back with PVA (the white glue that book makers use) and the piece takes on enough strength and rigidity to hold its shape without pins.

I like to have several sources of reference material for each piece so that I can pick and choose elements from each that work to the piece’s advantage, and I can more fully understand what I am looking at.

This piece represents a cross section of hands in prayer position. The section passes through laterally at the level of the metacarpals (the bones of the main part of the hand).

I’ve partially made the bones of the thumb knuckles and some tendons.

This part of my studio was originally the laundry room, and is where I make the boxes that contain my pieces. I make them out of cherry wood and old glass and cover the outside with Japanese silk book cloth. It is beautiful stuff to work with. I’ve had the good fortune to have friends in the book arts that have taught me good paper and paste technique. It’s fussy, precise, clean work that I enjoy in a certain state of mind.

This piece represents a lateral section through the head at about nose level. It is life-size. I love how asymmetrical the body looks in cross section. We are so symmetrical on the outside and so asymmetrical on the inside and everything inside fits so perfectly. This is the connection I made to quilling. Rolled pieces of paper are amenable to being squeezed, shaped and shifted to fill a space. I use mulberry paper for its fabric-like strength and flexibility and the sophisticated color palette it is available in.

This piece represents a midsagittal section (the one that cuts through the center making a left half and a right half) of the head and chest. I employ a device of making all of the bones in my work from the gilded edges of old books. I do this for aesthetic reasons as well as a means of pulling the pieces away from the world of scientific specimens and a bit more in the direction of religious reliquaries. I like to emphasize the reverential and the precious; to have a look inside is such a privilege.

I continually challenge myself to increase my vocabulary of quilling shapes and textures while sticking to the inherent grammar of the technique. It is important to me that the viewer’s eye does not grow weary of looking at swirls.

I like for my works to read more as objects than as images. To that end, I show the lateral sections lying flat on shelves and the vertical ones, standing upright in an altarpiece-like fashion.

Lisa Nilsson’s Tissue Series: Anatomical Cross Sections in Paper will be on exhibit at the Lavender Door Gallery (37 Main Street, Stockbridge, MA), through August 24, 2011.

Lisa Nilsson is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where she studied Illustration, and more recently of the McCann Technical School’s medical assisting program, where her life-long aesthetic interest in anatomy and cool-looking medical things grew a bit more informed. She lives in North Adams, Massachusetts.

All images courtesy of Lisa Nilsson.

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Sarah Yakawonis says

January 25, 2012 at 9:30 am

I started doing work like this about a year before Lisa did. . .

http://yakawonis.blogspot.com/2010/12/quilled-brain.html

Charli says

February 2, 2012 at 1:53 pm

I have been quilling for over 50 years. Your quilling is outstanding and shows just how versatile quilling is.

This is why I stress practice, practice, practice when I teach quilling.

February 5, 2012 at 12:20 am

i started quilling in 2004 and tried different styles never seen quilled artwork with that level of details .. i loved it

Chris Mainwaring says

February 15, 2012 at 3:26 pm

you should do an optical illusion with one it would look so cool, this is really good work.

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Lisa Nilsson

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Lisa Nilsson Biography

Lisa Nilsson is a visual artist who grew up in Avon, Massachusetts. She found early inspiration in the makers-of-things in her family, including her father, a retired graphic designer, and his brother, an illustrator. Members of her family sewed, painted houses and watercolors, repaired car bodies, and mixed colors for false teeth. In the 1980s, Lisa attended the Rhode Island School of Design and mostly learned about making illustrations. She received a BFA, and after art school worked first as an illustrator at American Greetings in Cleveland and later as a freelancer for Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, and the Utne Reader. In the winter of 2003, Lisa moved to North Adams, Massachusetts to live and work in a recently renovated textile mill now inhabited by working artists. At the mill, Lisa began making small-scale assembled works that brought together many of her lifes collection of things, artistic skills and interests. They were shown, among other places, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2010 Lisa took her only extended period away from the art-making studio to attend the medical assisting program at her local technical school. At McCann, Lisa’s life-long interest in anatomy and cool-looking medical things grew a bit more informed. It was also in 2010 that Lisa began working with paper, quilling and anatomical cross-sections. She continues to further this body of work that was first shown at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She is represented in New York City by Pavel Zoubok Gallery.

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Lisa Nilsson

Selected group exhibitions.

• Some Bodies ,Opalka Gallery, Sage Colleges ,Albany, New York, USA
• The Winter Show 2020 ,Pavel Zoubok Fine Art ,New York, USA
• SUPERNATURE ,Pavel Zoubok Fine Art ,New York, USA