Contemporary Silhouette Artist Cindi Harwood Rose, cuts above other paper profilers With added history too! Gina Pelano

                Do you think silhouette portrait art is old-fashioned, it can be, if the artist is not attuned to style, or is mimicking historical silhouette art work done by silhouette and shade artists in the 1700 and 1800's. Today's expert silhouette fine artist, Cindi Harwood Rose, is cuts above many of her contemporaries.  For one thing, she is the authentic, real-deal silhouette lady!  I was astounded to see her cut profile arts in Rhode Island.  She sits erect and handles authentic silhouette paper, and unique scissors talking as she works.  The side of the subject's face appeared from the acid-free paper in about 20 seconds and it was exact!  She told me that many of the artists that cut silhouettes are now using construction paper, and that the real silhouette paper is white on one side and black on the other.  Watch out if it is not, as it could not stand up in time, and be acid-free or good for the environment, it can fade.  The authentic silhouette paper lasts, but costs much more for the artists to buy, so that is why some are using black paper on both sides, but it is really a grey-black, Cindi explained. 

                True silhouette artisans cut from the white side, and this is what she learned as a teen-ager when she began her marvelous cut art creations of the individuals, and their pets!  However, when asked how she learned it, she immediately told me, she never learned to cut silhouettes, as it really can't be taught, even to wonderful portrait artists.  Cindi Rose said, she was born an artist, and I have to agree.  I also must mention, I did see a silhouette artist and his work was not from real silhouette paper, had no details, and actually looked cave-man style, the child had a neck the size of a prize fighter! Not Cindi's work, the children look like you want to hug them and love them, and she just captures their faces and makes them just darling.  So, when we talk silhouette artists, you should really examine the work that is being displayed in whatever promotion you are reading.  I asked Cindi where the great silhouette artists were.  She said she knew of good silhouette artists in Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, California, and possibly, New York.  Now that I searched the net, I have to say that I think Cindi Rose, is the America's finest silhouette artist. 

                I brought in a book from someone who says to take a photo and cut that out with any kind of paper, even wallpaper, and that was a silhouette. WRONG.  That is just something to do, similar to gluing rhinestones on something, pretending it is diamonds.

                 Reading the history of silhouette artwork, by Mrs. E. Nevell Jackson, I realized that it is an art, to capture the way someone dresses, acts, stands, wears their hair in paper, by cutting directly and not sketching first.  Of course, the exception is Kara Walker, and Dickens who are making unique dialogues about society.  But Cindi Harwood Rose, manages to make her silhouette or shade cuts into true art, with dialogue.  You can almost imagine who the person is, what they think, and exactly, how they wore their hair, as shown in these delightful intricate silhouette artworks by master Cindi H. Rose.