Cutting up beautifully

Karl Johnson took his daughter to her school musical rehearsal and waited as they went through the script and numbers. As he sat on a folding chair, he had a great view of another parent sitting in profile waiting for the event to conclude. So Karl did what any of us would do, he took out his scissors and carved a profile of the lady and gave it to her. (You can see it play out in the video below.) Karl Johnson is a sculpture with scissors. He is famous for making silhouettes on black paper that mostly capture the profiles of people, but sometimes other objects and animals. In the video, Karl surprises the waiting lady with the artwork after giving it a finish. “Oh my God, It’s amazing, thank you,” says the woman and chuckles with happiness.

Karl Johnson is considered America’s premier silhouette artist. Karl learned this unique skill as a young boy from his father who had been taught many years earlier by a longtime friend of the family. Karl took to this unusual art form extremely well.  Something he attributes, in part, to having vision in only one eye.  Karl was born being able to see only from his right eye.  Not having binocular vision forces Karl to judge the distance and shape of an object by examining its shadow.  This allows Karl to capture an image in shadow in an uncanny way. Starting when he was only ten years old, Karl estimates that he has freehand cut hundreds of thousands of silhouette images in his career. Karl’s work hangs in the homes of many Hollywood notables. Most recently Karl created silhouettes for the guests at Reese Witherspoon’s wedding to Jim Toth and Drew Barrymore’s wedding to Will Kopelman. His work has also been featured in numerous national publications. Karl was commissioned to do a series of life size silhouette portraits which were featured in the Kip’s Bay Designer Show house in NYC. You can also see Karl’s work on several TV shows & movies including “The Black Swan.”

Cutting up some laughs

Apple is releasing a new product called the iKnife.
It’s cutting edge technology.

I got a job at a circle making factory!
Sadly, I was fired today because I was cutting corners.

I decided to switch to a new barber
My current barber just isn’t cutting it.

“I don’t think you’re cut out to be a mime, son.”
Son: “Was it something I said?”

July 6th Birthdays

1978 – Tia and Tamera Mowry,  1980 – Eva Green,  1994 – Backy Rosso, 1995 – Milly Rosso

1979 – Kevin Hart, 1935 – Dalia Llama, 1946 – Sylvester Stallone, 2001 – Zion Williamson

Morning Motivator:

“Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.”

See Karl in action

You look great in black