Rapunzel 4.0

Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair! (for a fourth time)

Last month I completed my fourth iteration of a Rapunzel inspired paper sculpture. “Fourth?” you say. Yes! My fourth (though it should have probably been my 6th or at least 5th).

I love the idea of artists recreating something every few years to see how their skills and influences change throughout their career. The idea was to keep the same long vertical composition with ‘Rapunzel’ in the tower amongst clouds and a ‘prince’ climbing up with quilled hair flowing down. Everything else - the colors, textures, materials, style - could be changed based off what I wanted to do at the time.

Here’s how it progressed:

Rapunzel 1.0

During my final semester of art school, I tried to synthesize my love of illustration with my love of paper engineering (making pop-ups/working with paper in a 3d format). Heavily influenced by my drive to put together a portfolio of artwork worthy of being hired by Disney Animation, I opted to create a illustration with paper of Rapunzel in Disney-esq style.

I look back on this piece with a mixture of pride and cringe. I don’t feel like my skills were where I wanted them to be and now, there’s a lot of little things I wish I could fix. Yet, it was a landmark piece in my art journey and it unlocked a lot of opportunities for me. Also, I feel like I’ve never been able to get the quilled hair in any other piece as good as the first time.

Rapunzel 2.0

A couple years after graduating, I began doing conventions. Having more experience as a freelance artist, I wanted to re-do my Rapunzel piece to see if I could ‘fix’ the mistakes I saw in the first one.

My convention partner at the time was Helen Yoon - an amazing illustrator and author. Being around her breathtaking work was an absolute inspiration at the time. She really encouraged me to push the boundaries of what paper art could look like.

I look back at this piece and am still in love with the overall movement and the tower, especially its roof. But knew when I created my next one, I wanted to focus on the faces more again.

Rapunzel 3.0

I visited Japan for the first time and came back with a million photos and new found appreciation for Asian heritage. Growing up in the Midwest, I wanted nothing more than to blend in and so rejected a lot of my Asian culture (a story for another time).

I never really learned about any Chinese fairy tales or fables either. I wonder what would have changed in me as a kid, had I saw an Asian version of Rapunzel? So having returned from my trip, I wanted to try and create a Japanese version of Rapunzel based off the architecture, colors, and clothing I saw. I also tried using various patterned and colored papers I brought back from Japan.

I still love the clouds I did in this piece, especially with the Japanese Washi paper. And this piece still gets the most comments when people see it - probably because they’ve also never seen an Asian version of Rapunzel!

Rapunzel 4.0

After an almost 10 year hiatus, I finally found the time to create a fourth Rapunzel. Inspired by my son’s non-stop request for Netflix’s K-Pop Demon Hunters, (both songs and video are on repeat), I created the piece featuring Rumi and Jinu.

I love images from the song Free in the movie so took the color inspiration from there. Plus, I’ve always wanted to create a night version of the Rapunzel but it’s always hard to making something feel like ‘night’ once I photograph it. Hard cast shadows automatically read as ‘day’ but without the shadows, it just feels too flat. Hence the use of some digital adjustments this time around.

I have my own thoughts on what I’d like to keep and redo for next time, but for now I’ll relay what my child critic has said: “I recognize that tail! But where’s the bird? Oh wait, I see him! Where’s his eyes and patterns?…How come Jinu has his demon stripes?…Where are Rumi’s?…Can you not add Jinu’s next time?…Good job, mom!Thumbs up!” (Yes, he said ‘thumbs up’ instead of giving me an actual thumbs up.)

Rapunzel 5.0?

It was easier to keep up with the project when I was doing conventions. Having to debut new work every few shows helped reinforce the need to do new non-client oriented work. So after I stopped doing conventions to focus on family, my Rapunzel project got sidelined for a few years.

I will admit that I have regrets about it. Much like Taylor Swift re-recording her old albums, the way she sings them in Taylor’s Versions just aren’t 100% the same as she did before.

The decisions I make today aren’t the same decisions I would have made 6 and 3 years ago (the missing years between Rapunzel 3.0 and Rapunzel 4.0). Even if I would have made the same decisions, my skills, influences, and outlook on art and life are different. And now, there’s no way to turn back time to see what would have been.

So I hope to return in a couple more years with another version. Who knows what it will be? But I’m excited to find out.