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florinda strimel biography
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[Biography] [Gallery]
Self Portrait
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Florinda Strimel grew up in Philadelphia. She was always
very creative even in childhood, writing poetry, drawing or
creating ceramics. She followed her dreams throughout high school,
even taking some classes at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia.
Then she was off to Penn State University and Bachelor Degrees in both
Art and Science in Art Education. |
After graduation, Florinda taught
high school in the Greater Philadelphia area before spreading her wings
to see the West Coast and moved to California. After seven years of
teaching all subjects other then art, Florinda knew something was missing. |
Spike
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Bashful
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Then, while recuperating in a hospital after an accident in 1999, she was
introduced to paper cutting by her mother. She found it to be very calming.
Florinda went back to school and became a full-time Graphics Designer,
but papercutting
is what she likes to do in her spare time. Her computer talents helps her
draw and create designs
that she then uses as templates for her cuttings. |
What inspires Florinda to cut is seeing something she likes or thinks
would make a good cutting. For example, she looks at a group of animals or
a picture and wonders about the design aspect of positive and negative shapes.
She creates her sketches using Adobe Illustrator software. She uses the printout
of the sketch as a template to cut out the black paper. |
Stately
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Cats
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The template has the
added advantages of resizing and protecting the underlying black paper.
Although Florinda has created
papercuts
using colored papers, her preference is for black paper. Most of her work is done
with scissors and in the small places sometimes she uses a blade. She uses a
variety of scissor types, including cuticle scissors which have a natural curve
for rounded areas. |
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