Inside an old warehouse of a paper strip manufacturing plant owned and formerly operated by her family, Chie Hitotsuyama crafts sculptures of wildlife, which are often life-size, in hermakeshift studio. By wetting, twisting, rolling, folding, and stacking paper, the artist compels an unlikely material out of newspaper. The ongoing effort is formally titled Hitotsuyama Studio, consisting of Hitotsuyama and the project’s creative director, Tomiji Tamai.
The artist has shown these works across the world, with solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Okinawa, and Los Angeles. At a recent exhibition at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles, titled “Paper Trails,” the artist offers insight into her process: “At a recent exhibition at Jai & Jai Gallery in Los Angeles, titled “Paper Trails,” the artist offers insight into her process: “When a piece of paper is rolled up, it increases in strength, and by gluing together one by one and side by side, I can carefully form contours and curves with each single string. These single strings, collected together, consequently become the surface of an objects. And eventually, a shape or a form of an object appears.”
Newspapers are released out into the world and throw away every day, while carrying memories, the artist says. In these works, we find our own cycles mirrored.
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Chie Hitotsuyama "Paper Trails" from Ayako Hoshino on Vimeo.
Of all the creatures on the planet, perhaps no other has inspired us quite like birds; they are strong, light, beautiful, and have the freedom to go anywhere they want to go. Birds have long inspired artist Tom Hill's mixed media sculptures made of carved wood, forged copper, and steel. The birds that he builds are characterizations of real species like owls and and black birds, capturing their natural personalities in a playful, even cartoonish way. He gives them big, rounded and expressive eyes, delicate feathers spun out of hardy wires, and long, spindly legs. "I tend to think of all my pieces as character studies. Spend a few seconds observing a bird; the turn of the head, the flash of an eye, puffed up feathers; each gesture conveys a wealth of visual material for the artist as we see the bird consider and interact intelligently with the world around it," he says.
In a new exhibition at 
Brooklyn-based, Michigan-raised artist