Lisa Nilsson's Latest Anatomical Quilled Paper

I am so excited to have stumbled across Lisa Nilsson's latest anatomical quilled paper pieces via Colossal. Lisa's original Tissue Series spread like wildfire as people fell in awe of the technique and amount of patience to create anatomical cross sections by quilling. Quilling is the process of  rolling strips of paper around a quill and then gluing them to a surface to create decorative designs.

Lisa's latest pieces take on a religious tone with the cross section of an angel and praying hands. Perhaps in a nod to the first quilling practiced by Renaissance nuns and monks who used the gilded edges of old Bibles.

Lisa explains the marriage between anatomy and quilling, "I find quilling exquisitely satisfying for rendering the densely squished and lovely internal landscape of the human body in cross section."

Look for her work currently on display at the exhibition, Teaching the Body: Artistic Anatomy in the American Academy held at the Boston Art Gallery, February 1 – March 31, 2013.

This piece represents a midsagittal section (the one that passes through the center of the body dividing it into a left half and a right half) of the head of an angel. It is "life-size". The work was inspired Fra Angelico's Annunciatory Angel.

This piece represents a transverse cross-section of hands in prayer position. The section passes through the large knuckles at the bases of the thumbs.