Because of its ephemeral nature, I typically do not purchase giftwrapping paper: that seems wasteful. However, I'm often lucky enough to be given such papers, usually on gifts, but in this case, unused: the person who gave me these papers used the designs she liked, then passed on the rest to me.
Raoul Dufy designed paper; flocked, sateen, and curling ribbon; flocked rose, plastic snowflake. N.b.: all three images in this post were taken with a lumix LX-100, then adjusted with gimp's perspective tool, and cropped.
These giftwrap papers were published as a large softbound book that included an introduction about the artist that explains that the giftwrap papers are based on textile designs (for which, of course, the artist was accused of selling out). Born in 1877, it's not surprising that his work is compared to that of Matisse, which certainly make sense.[1]
Another angle. Really liking the perspective tool to square up images, as this allows me to reduce the depth-of-field to the camera's minimum for maximum bokeh (instead of using telephoto, which automatically increased DoF), i.e. separation from the background.
But this particular paper owes far more to Japanese ukiyo-e prints and, perhaps, Indian textiles. I love both of those things, so since the wizard kindly allowed me to wrap this gift from him to me,[2] this paper was a good choice. The only problem is, then I goofed up and forgot the gift was to me, not him, and he was a little irked at opening it. But, you know, wrapping it was probably more fun for me anyway....
closeup
Since the paper is relatively busy, I kept the decorations relatively simple, helped by the fact that I cut the flocked red, and satin white ribbon fresh for this project: both rolls are very old, and I figured I might as well start using them before they rotted and fell apart, or became irretrievably moldy. The flocked green and red bow, on the other hand, was on its last legs, so I used it one last time, since its red flocking matched the rose, and green background, the paper.
[1]Though I can't help noticing the reproduction of a circa 1928 nude titled L'Hindoue a L'Eventail brought to mind Gaugin's Spirit of the Dead (though the pose is closer to Manet's Olympia and the face, to some of Emil Nolde's depictions of women—none of them terrifically appealing, as these works struck me, like those Women I, II & III of Willem de Kooning, as sexist at best and positively misogynistic at worst. Why yes, I do have strong opinions about art, why do you ask?)
[2]Better yet, he allowed me to choose the gift of which this was a part.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
