Paper Tole – LICIA PRIEST

As a child Priest’s mother bought her a few paper tole sets. Paper tole is a traditional craft technique of layering images to create dimension, by cutting out each layer and stacking them to create a three-dimensional image. She forgot all about them. But one day in 2017 while searching for something in her parents’ closet, she found a few pieces she did as a child. She thought that she would like to take that traditional craft and create fine art.

One current series Priest has been working on is focused on dispelling misconceptions of her African heritage and homeland. The imagery is from her time in Zimbabwe. Upon arrival into the country for she was not the minority and she said,” it was so amazing”. To go into a bank and see the senior employees on down all people of color was incredible. To see the bustling cities and beautiful homes as well as the village life was truly eye opening”. One piece Priest did entitled “Bustling Harare” was thought to have been San Francisco, not a city on the continent of Africa. Priest wants others to see a different view than what the media chooses to portray. She wants the viewer to look through the wider lens of her gaze. The other series Priest is also working on is entitled, “She looks like Me“. This body of work contains portraits of women and young girls and addresses the topics of beauty, hair, growing up and imitating your parents whether you want to or not, aging, weight and being a mother. Priest has also begun painting portions of the figures and background to add to the variety of thick luscious brush stokes to the tactile surfaces in her work, as seen in Mother and Child and Kitchen Hut II.