For my final project in Pop-up Books, I wanted to do something different. So I abandoned my love of the written narrative in favor of something a little more abstract, and a little…bigger.

Mehan is pictured holding my paper sculpture. You can see that when stretched, the sculpture is almost the same height as he is.

Here it is from another view:

This is what it looks like in its passive (and less-glamorous) state:

All I really did was take a simple pattern and repeat it several times. Then I took another smaller version of that same pattern and placed it inside of the larger one. I attached some string (though I would have preferred to use fishing wire) and the above photos show the result.

Personally, my favorite photo is the one below. It looks as the sculpture is lounging on the table, so relaxed that it’s spilling out over the edge. I half expect it to languidly stretch out a paper arm and lazily ask if I have a cigarette I can spare. (To which I will respond no because I don’t smoke, and also because that seems even more dangerous for paper than for humans.)