| CHESPAK
PAPER SCULPTURE: “It (paper sculpture) is something I have done since childhood, and I started gluing things together to get that three-dimensional quality,” Chespak, 44, recalls. Nowadays, his studio and two galleries are in Palm Springs, the springboards for an international career. “It really started that simply, and it has remained that way.” But Chespak certainly doesn’t feel consigned to the desert-side-lines of art. “Paper sculpture people seem to find me,” He says. “There are people who do what I do, but mine seems to be the fine art of it.” Of course the ‘fine art’ of it is in his hands, which select, mold, contort and combine fine-quality papers into surprising pieces-after all a paper sculpture of an olive isn’t quite what you might expect, nor is a paper brassiere mounted in Plexiglas on a mirrored wall of a downtown health club the usual. Eye-catching but unusual. “The olive piece is part of the Produce section of six: an olive, an orange, a lemon, a kiwi, a watermelon and a tomato. “It’s six different colors in an edition, and I hope to make posters.” Lithographs, posters, greeting cards and other reproductions of Chespak’s originals are part of the marketing plan, “so you can buy something for $30, $300 or $30,000-plus. And just what might $30,000 buy me? “Well I am working on a casino project, which will be enlarged to 30 or 40 feet.” There is plenty to plan in making paper sculpture, weather it be a floral arrangement or a paper railroad train. “The process begins with drawings, and it had to be planned. I know what I have to do, and I plan it in my mind. I have to think about how it will be constructed,” Chespak reveals. “Then it moves on to a proto-type, a maquette, if you will. I have templates for everything I do, and my work is all professionally photographed and documented. It is very time consuming: The pieces are hand cut, and once everything is cleaned and cut, I will wet them and to curve that paper, and it will stay that way even when it is dry. Paper is very moldable. Sometimes I have to hold things a lot to get a shape I want. “To make a female nude, you see how she is sitting, and the paper is curved, bent, scored, angled, tilted, sprayed with water-one piece from neckline to spine. You see how it touches the light, noticing the indention on the back, and then it stops and continues right around the butt, all with one piece of paper. My hands hurt a lot!” Never mind. Chespak’s painstaking certainly pleases the eye.
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