Guitta Corey

Guitta Corey holds a degree in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. Printmaking, pastels and collage are her preferred mediums. A prolific artist, her works can be found in private, museum and corporate collections, as well as in public spaces. She has resided in Alaska since 1979.

She began her career as a printmaker, and has always had a fondness for fine paper. For years, she collected washi and other decorative papers and began creating collages using these lovely sheets in 1994. Like the paintings of the Impressionists, her collages are not about lines, but rather dissolve into bits of color and texture when viewed up close. The work should be examined this way to appreciate the beautiful and unusual papers that make up the images. Embedded flecks of gold and silver leaf may glint like light on the water’s surface. From any distance the papers fool the eye and become a cohesive image.

This type of collage is called chigiri-e, or painting with paper. Guitta often overlaps several different papers to achieve the desired effect, just as a painter might use thin glazes of color.