One snip at a time

CUDAHY -- Exquisite in their simplicity and pure whiteness, a chorus of angels stand silently near the madonna and the infant Jesus on a sunny December morning, in a yard overlooking a brilliant, blue Lake Michigan.

Fashioned by Joan Houlehen, the group of angels and round madonna and child in her yard are just several of the beautiful decorations, three-dimensional ornaments and Christmas cards, she has paper cut for nearly 20 years. The cards are either standing ones or can be used as ornaments. Once created in paper, the designs are water-cut or die-cut.

Intricately cut in a circle, the round madonna and child was Houlehen's first paper cut in 1983. It is also her favorite.

"I think people should focus on the real meaning of Christmas. I don't like the commercial way," said Houlehen, who is Catholic. But since her cards and artwork are more religious, they don't always appeal to a huge audience, she said.

Each year, Houlehen creates a new card and a new ornament for Christmas.

Last April, she traveled to Florence, Italy and was inspired there to create her 2001 Christmas card -- the city of Bethlehem. The design for that city incorporates Bruneschelli's Dome, she said, as well as a Medici Tower, which is representative of the tower cities of Italy. If you take the cross off the dome it could even be a mosque for some people, she said. But for her it's really Bethlehem.

Her ornament this year was more modern -- a spaceman, which is actually a snowman, with a spiral design overlaying it.

Beside these patterns, her angels and madonna, Houlehen cuts, trims and clips numerous other figures including wise men, reindeers and Christmas trees. Her "Three Trees" standing Christmas card is a favorite of many, she said.

"People like it because it's wintry," she said.

The first tree in the cut out represents a chopped tree at the start of the holiday season, the second tree with round cut out ornaments is for Christmas and the third tree, its center completely cut out, is after Christmas when all the needles of a tree have fallen off.

As a little girl, Houlehen remembers spending hours cutting paper dolls. "Now when I cut I don't need a form," she said. Most of her cutting is done while she stands at her work table in her small, colorful studio, to the rear of her home. Amazingly, she cuts and trims, but doesn't sketch or draw first, she just forms tiny crosses, windows and shooting stars perfectly and precisely with her tiny scissors. For her, all of her picture-perfect designs, "look more complicated than they are."