Cynthia Potter

Cynthia Potter--Papier Mache/Weaving

I spent a lot of my childhood up in trees. I was a good tree climber, and growing up in the tropics made it even easier. Trees like those in Puerto Rico had branches much lower to the ground and they were thick and twisted, the perfect playground. My brother and I each claimed our own, quite large, mango trees. Dad helped me nail a couple of 2x4s to the trunk of my chosen one so I could make it up the first part. My brother teased me, that I was a baby to need those. I watched as he seemed to effortlessly climb any tree, like a monkey! As I got older and braver, I climbed higher and higher, determined to climb as well as he. I figured out how to disperse my weight evenly across the smaller branches that reached up to the sky. Soon, I was able to pop out the top and see the beautiful countryside around me. Later, Dad told me he would see me poking out the top of that mango tree, swaying in the wind, with the biggest grin on my face! Instead of being alarmed, he let me be in that moment of joy.

My main focuses are weaving and papier maché. For both mediums, I particularly enjoy the planning stages. I love picking out the yarns and combining the colors for my weaving projects. I sketch out designs and make quick studies for my papier maché puppets, masks and figures. As I do in illustration, I may immerse myself in a subject looking at reference photos and making sketches of them, whether they are the style I want or not. This familiarizes my hands with the shapes and angles of my subject so that it is almost automatically natural to create. And there is that part of the process that is just plain relaxing and meditative. The repetitive movements of weaving while the fabric appears, and the layering of papier maché strips transforming into a solid existence is so very satisfying. To me, the weaving I do basically pleases and calms me. And when I take it off the loom, I am rewarded with a beautiful product! Completing my papier maché projects is a bit more complicated. Since these are usually figures, they become individual beings, and I owe it to them to do a good job. After finishing the many days of layering the papier maché, and then sanding and sealing the surface, I prime it for painting. Those first brushstrokes are always intimidating, but I push on through and am always surprised that I am able to complete it.

Back when I was a teenager, I stopped climbing my tree for a while. Then one day I decided I was going to climb that mango to the top again. About two-thirds of the way up, I put all my young adult weight on a rotten branch and found myself falling, grabbing, and sliding until I was able to hug the tree hard enough to stop.

I guess sometimes I’m afraid of failing, but I keep going anyway. My papier maché creatures somehow evolve into these wonderful personalities. The results are not always what I expected, but I fall in love with most of them! I feel less pressure when I collaborate with my husband Carlos. He’ll create the basic form of an animal figure, and it’s usually really funky and asymmetrical. I’ll then do the papier maché and painting, which is lots of fun because I don’t feel I have to be so controlled and perfect. The results are some very charismatic creatures!

Cynthia Potter grew up in the southwestern part of Puerto Rico. As a kid, she was either doing something crafty with her mom, such as drawing, batik, tie-dye, sewing, making things out of yarn, or she was off in the island countryside exploring and climbing trees. She started at the University of Florida as a Fine Arts major and then switched to Graphic Design and received her Bachelor of Design in 1990. Cynthia has been working as a graphic designer and illustrator in Western NC since then. Throughout the years she has been dabbling in numerous arts and crafts and giving the results as gifts to friends or selling them at a craft festival here and there. She now lives in Asheville, NC with her husband Carlos and her mother Phyllis.

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