Thelma White has always been involved in creating art in one form or another starting with paper mache’ when she was eight years old and moving on to ceramics, clay sculpting, wood carving, oil painting, water color, and acrylics. Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, has always fascinated her, and her current works of art incorporate paper cuttings and folding.
After retiring from her day job as an executive secretary for a San Francisco Bay Area firm, Thelma now has the time to not only pursue her love of writing stories for children, but to indulge herself in the creation of works of art. She moved to the foothills of the Sierra Mountains in 2005 where she now lives with her very supportive family, receiving her artistic inspiration from her garden, her dogs, and the beauty and amazing craftmanship of antique carousel animals which she is passionate about. For many years she studied and photographed working carousels, took classes in wood carving and learned to carve her own carousel horses.
Her artwork is created by pasting photographs onto heavy paper and cutting out sections which she then applies in layers onto a painted background, gradually building up the layers using “stanchions” made of cardboard until she reaches the desired three-dimensional effect. She enhances her paper cuttings with polymer clay sculpturing, artificial flowers, fabric, ribbon and lace, and embellishes them with various “findings” (small trinkets, charms, rhinestones, beads and buttons). This form of artwork is time-consuming and very tedious, but rewarding when a project is satisfactorily completed.
