Gina-Marie maintains an  obsession with Japanese Chiyogami and Yuzen paper. Her love of the papers began while she was in college studying design. When she learned about the process required to make such papers, she was infatuated. To add to this, she found the texture and feel of the papers electrifying. As a person living with Multiple Sclerosis, this paper is one of her favorite things to touch. To add to the exquisite feel of the papers, origami is excellent for exercising one’s hands, a thing Gina has to do often (re: MS).

The idea for this series came to her while she was living in Germany. She couldn’t access the papers easily in the small town she lived in, so she filed the idea away for later: the  initial idea was to download large images and print them for collage over the portraits she’d shot. Upon arriving in Japan in 2014, she found herself with unlimited access to the wide range of ever-changing papers, and thus began the series that would later be called The Chiyogami Portraits.

Featured towards the end in this series are the later works, which are decidedly not portraits at all, that focus more on composition and emotions, and include other materials, mainly gouache and acrylic paint.

The images featured below are a selection of the works created between 2019 – 2023. In total, over 130 artworks comprise this series.

Materials: board, gesso, chiyogami/yuzen paper, gel medium, gel medium transfer, photo print (inkjet), gilding flakes, gouache, acrylic paint, newspaper, broken glass, gold leaf, mylar paper.