Rogan Brown
Rogan Brown has a beautiful series of intricately cut paper sculptures called Outbreak, celebrating the fractal patterns of the microscopic natural world.
In his own words: I am inspired in part by the tradition of scientific drawing and model making, and particularly the work of artist-scientists such as Ernst Haeckel. But although my approach involves careful observation and detailed “scientific” preparatory drawings these are always superseded by the work of the imagination; everything has to be refracted through the prism of the imagination, estranged and in some way transformed.
I want to communicate my fascination with the immense complexity and intricacy of natural forms and this is why the process behind my work is so important. Each sculpture is hugely time consuming and labour-intensive and this work is an essential element not only in the construction but also in the meaning of each piece. The finished artefact is really only the ghostly fossilized vestige of this slow, long process of realisation. I have chosen paper as a medium because it captures perfectly that mixture of delicacy and durability that for me characterizes the natural world.
I always enjoy art that draws inspiration from nature, whether it is hyper-real, surreal or entirely fictional in a way that evokes recognition of natural structures. Rogan does a stunning job with this, doesn’t he?
SheWalksSoftly 
July 15, 2014 at 5:26 pm
Fantastic! Some of them look like bacteria or fungi but they also look like he’s been looking extremely closely at his iris.
July 15, 2014 at 6:15 pm
WOW!!! Stunning! And I thought I was good with small details…
July 15, 2014 at 8:15 pm
What an odd coincidence! Only yesterday I was marvelling at the cut-paper art of Eric Standley:
http://ericstandley.30art.com/
and now I’m introduced to yet another paper sculptor, who’s work **whispers** I think like even better. (What can I say? There’s just something about bugs and bacteria that floats my boat. Um, plus the film ‘Outbreak’ happens to be a guilty pleasure of mine…)
I have no idea how work this intricate is even possible. Absolutely amazing! -Nx
July 17, 2014 at 2:24 am
I’ve posted about Eric Standley too! 😀
July 15, 2014 at 11:01 pm
Don’t feel too bad, Carrie and Neta, you too Dana, I noticed he also lasercuts. http://roganbrown.com/artwork/3152840_Seed.html . In his defense he also handcuts… or so he claims. All the same his work is gosh darn spectacular and definitely one of the elite arts that boggles the typical mind. I would pay to watch be done. Kind of want to touch it.
I recall my high school art teacher who said a great artist needs immense patience as well as talent. He applied a simple but ingenious method to find this in his students. He gave us all blank sheets of paper and told us we had the whole class period to draw snow falling. At the end of the class he observed our *cough* masterpieces. Most students had drawn big dot snowflakes or large pattern snowflakes. But a special few students had the patience to draw a gazillion snowflakes and bothered to make it look like a real storm scene with snow piling on the bottom of the paper. He got his answer.
July 15, 2014 at 11:34 pm
Ooo-er! Now I’m left wondering what I would’ve come up with, faced with a big blank sheet of paper and a whole class period in which to ‘capture’ falling snow…… -Nx
July 17, 2014 at 2:23 am
Haha…I too was hit with the urge to make paper snowflakes!