The Printmaker in Paper

Kikis Alejandre (Gilda Lucía Alamo Vilaboa), was a professor of graphic design at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City when she made a side trip to Seattle to do a course in basket weaving. As it happened, Pacific University's fine basketry workshop was next door to the paper workshop and before the course had finished Kikis found that she was spending more time in this than in that. It was the beginning of a lifetime affair with creative handmade papers which continues in Paperki, the paper mill which she founded in 1982 in the Basque whaling village of Hondarribia with her husband, the artist and engineer, José Ramón Alejandre.

These days Kikis' days are dedicated to the ongoing work of art which is the Alejandre house and workshop, her own artwork and exhibiting, giving short courses on creative papermaking in several European countries and the promotion of Paperki papers in art fairs round Spain.

What Kikis has discovered over almost 20 years of experimentation is that the paper itself, in its formative stages, can serve as the matrix for graphic art. That is to say, the work isn't on the paper, it is the paper. The results are unusual, difficult to define, delightfully playful and creative. What are they called? It isn't even easy to put a label on them. Let's let them speak for themselves.

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