ABOUT
Exploring the fragmented experience of an urban city, Natalie uses her bike and walking routes as a starting point for her maps. Each drawn map is both a document of actual buildings and a fantastical reimagining of her pathway becoming an entire world of its own. These shared pathways are intimately known by many strangers, who delight in recognizing and tracking their own map within Natalie’s intricate papercut drawings.
Intermingling illustration, watercolour, printmaking and pop up artist books, Natalie creates art that unfolds, pops up and reveals her metropolitan stories.
Paper, ink, and colour become fantastical maps filled with buildings, vehicles and curious citizens of Natalie's illustrated cities. Using pen, ink, watercolour and pigment, she illustrates and papercuts cities that exist between reality and her own perspectives. Natalie’s multi-layered papercuts begin as watercoloured drawings. Each layer is hand cut and stacked together into a fragmented cityscape. The final original artworks are archival limited edition framed papercuts.
Natalie Draz has a BA (Hons) from the University of Toronto, and a MFA from Concordia University where she combined traditional and digital print media techniques into large-scale paper works. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Women's Studio Workshop in Upstate New York; The Banff Art Centre; the Ayatana Mycology Residency in Nova Scotia; and in Pooch Cove, Newfoundland. She has also participated in Maker Faires in New York City, Mini Maker Fest in Montreal and the Maker Festival in Toronto. She regularly exhibits her artwork and book arts at fairs around North America, including ExpoZine, Canzine and more! Natalie was also a member of PROOF Studio Gallery, an art gallery in Toronto's Distillery District from 2006-2020.
_________________________________________________________________________________