Hazel Sebastian Glass,
Artist

Having spent two decades as a self-taught artist, Hazel Glass has always followed her own path. Preferring to gain inspiration through personal experience and varying cultures, she traveled extensively to study art around the world before devoting several years to refining her skills at the Savannah College of Art & Design, and the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Though she has called many places home over the years, she only ever really meant it about Portland, Oregon.
Hazel firmly believes that bigger is not better. She finds both the meticulous technical challenges and the resulting delicacy of working small too intriguing to ignore. And with her love for clean, intricate patterns and making traditional art, papercutting was an instant fit for her.
While most papercut art is either black or white and often a single sheet, Hazel's compositions pushe those boundaries. She works instead with multiple layers, creating interwoven contrast and a strata of depth with her designs. Using an x-acto blade, Hazel hand cuts each layer separately, building them up from a 2D drawing into bas-relief sculptures. Precision alignment while gluing is the essential final touch for each piece.
Of equal importance is her use of the full spectrum of color. Whether the palette is vibrant or subdued, it is an integral part of her work. And while the design is what Hazel's art is saying, color is the tone of voice through which each piece speaks.