Sonia Brandes - Paper Artist/Psaligraf

The magic of patterns

“Patterns have a stimulating effect on the imagination. You can create fantasies about a pattern, start at one end, and run through the whole pattern until you return to your starting point. Or you can choose to start in an arbitrary place near the centre and move out there. The cut made by the scissors is like an arabesque that bites its own tail, the movement goes on for ever, you are never held back and everything remains open. This, to me, is the power of a pattern. It doesn't stop you thinking, but you can add meaning to it yourself” - Sonia Brandes

A passion for paper

Sonia Brandes is a paper artist, or as it is known more formally a psaligrapher, and has been working with paper and scissors all her life. Her passion for paper started with the “gækkebreve” - traditional anonymous easter cards - that she would cut out as a child on the island of Ærø. Since then folk art and especially the stories of H.C. Andersen and Selma Lagerlöf have provided the inspiration for her artistic works. She works with many different formats, such as books, altarpieces and larger decorative projects, but what they all have in common is that the starting point is the paper and the scissor.

Biography

Sonia Brandes (b.1946) was born and raised on Ærø. She has lived many different places, but in 2017 she settled near the north tip of Langeland. She is a self taught artist, and has undertaken many exhibitions and decorative projects both in Denmark and abroad.

If you would like to see more…

You can drop by Kunsttårn 1 (Art Tower no 1) on Lohalsvej, where Sonia Brandes’ work ‘Dyrene omkring mig’ (The animals that surround me) is on display until 2023.