Passage III

Master Paper Portrait Cutter

In crowded New York City subway stations, violinists rarely turn heads, dance troupes spin by unnoticed, and singers often serenade only themselves.But subway artist, Ming Liang Lu, who in 2012 is creating his delicate work at the foot of a Union Square staircase, attracts attention. He’s a self-described “master paper portrait cutter,” transforming the centuries-old traditional Chinese art of paper cutting(32) by focusing on an untraditional subject, it’s the human face.

[1]Lu flags down a passerby who has an intriguing face offering to create a tiny silhouette portrait, needing just a small piece of black paper, razor-sharp scissors, and a few minutes. [2] The model often buys the portrait with a small fee. [3] Many commuters, so taken by the art, and have missed morning trains to have their own likenesses cut. [4] If not, Lu pins it to a white foam board, which has become an eye-catching gallery of dozens of distinct faces whose outlines pop out crisply in black.(38)

Lu begins a portrait by folding a four-by-six-inch rectangle of paper in half and asking them to stand still facing him. He first cuts into the folded edge, carving paper away to shape the model's main facial features, including eyes, nose, and lips. Lu doesn't move the scissors as he works. Instead, he maneuvers the paper along the slightly open scissor blades. [A] He then unfolds his creation, working with scissors to cut out eyebrows, wrinkles, and other details. [B] To finish, he shapes the outer contours of the face, such as the hair and jawline, letting the paper's border fall to the floor.[C] Lu often exaggerates a model's facial features for whimsical effect, but it's not as if his intentions are cruel. Passersby, seeing Lu's board, sometimes even recognize people from their commute . [D] A bald man in sunglasses, a woman with dreadlocks, a girl wearing hoop earrings, a young boy smiling. One of Lu's admirers claimed that collectively Lu's paper cuttings arranged together create “a New York portrait.”(45)