Stuart McLachlan | An Exclusive Interview | The True Story

“As humans, we are taught to achieve in career, wealth, status, power, ambition, etc. These traits are absolutely human and qualities that have led to significant advances and inventions. But, on the other hand, it also led to excess and waste, which is causing a dangerous imbalance in our natural world. Reflection and empathy are where I want to drive the viewer. To not take the obvious left or right perspective but build an opinion based on deep thought, facts, and accurate history of the situation.”
– Stuart McLachlan

After completing a degree in Illustration and Graphic Design, Stuart McLachlan began his career as an illustrator in Adelaide, Australia. Working in Melbourne, Amsterdam, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and now Sydney, his work has been published globally, appearing in international magazines such as The Economist, The New Yorker, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal.
Over the last few years, McLachlan has shifted his attention towards the world of paper art and has become internationally recognized as one of the premier artists in the field.
Using hand-cut paper, he creates images, art objects, and pieces for fashion, editorial, and advertising areas. These handmade pieces have been produced for art commissions and used extensively on the fashion runway and published in Vogue, Karen magazine, book covers, posters, and editorially.
Stuart McLachlan has turned his hand to creating large-scale sets, including the piece commissioned by “The World of Wearable Art” show for their 25th Anniversary extravaganza in New Zealand. It stood at approximately 12 meters in diameters x 5 meters high and was used as their finale set featuring over 150 performers and dancers.
His paperwork has been cataloged in the art books “PaperArt” ( Hong Kong ), “PaperCraft 2” ( Berlin), “Paperworks”
( China), and “PaperCuts “( U.S.A.) which goes behind the scenes featuring 30 of the world best paper artists.

McLachlan’s sculptures and artworks have been exhibited worldwide and have been awarded at many art shows and prizes. McLachlan’s work has been auctioned off at The Rockefeller Centre in New York by Christie’s Auction house.
It is a great pleasure to feature an exclusive interview with Stuart McLachlan, The magician of Paper Art Sculptures.

An Exclusive Interview With
Stuart McLachlan
By Ida Salamon

Ida Salamon: Using hand-cut paper and glue, you create images with fascinating precision. These handmade works have been considered art, and you are internationally recognized as one of the pioneers in that field. How do you feel about it?

Stuart McLachlan: To be considered a pioneer amongst others in this field is pretty wild, and I’m honored to be regarded in this manner. I suspect that creating art in a new way is the overriding goal of every artist, but I never pursued such a status; I suppose sometimes it’s really just a matter of timing. For example, I was doing a lot of computer illustration, which frustrated me, and being trained as a traditional painter/artist, I felt an urgency to get back to something more hands-on. I think the same was happening to many others throughout the world due to the increasing dominance of computer imagery.

Ida Salamon: As a student of illustration and graphic design, did it seem clear to you at the time that paper would be your creative form of expression? What skills do you need for it?

Stuart McLachlan: No, not at all; it wasn’t even a blip on my radar. After about twenty years of working in acrylic paint, oils, scratchboard, ink, etc., I yearned to do something different and get away from painting. Before using computers, I had a natural ability to dramatically bend perspective in my work and seek new ideas and fresh angles. I imagined the entire scene in 3D, viewing it as a movie set to find the most dramatic angle to illustrate it from. Because of this, transitioning to the whole 3d sculpture was pretty straightforward for me.

As far as skills, there are only a few, the main ones being stamina and patience. Precision comes with care and having the confidence to believe that any concept can be brought to life. Apart from that, it’s just a whole bunch of tedious cutting, glueing, and structuring. Easy! Ha!

Ida Salamon: Can you tell us something about the working process? What kind of paper do you use?

Stuart McLachlan: Sometimes, I’ll use drawings as a guide, but I’ll start building a concept in my head many times.
If I do use drawings, they’re pretty loose, so I’m not locked into too much detail and have the freedom to create as I go.
I do, however, match the proportions of the drawing to the scale of what I am making as I believe if it works well as a sketch, it will transfer well proportionally as a sculpture. I spend a lot of time thinking about it 3D to consider all of the potential problems such as weight, size, mounting, balance, and even how it will be displayed and shipped to a client once it is purchased. I use Arches watercolor paper generally. It’s a rag paper that is durable, archival, and holds its form without ever warping. You have to use a material that doesn’t contort when it is glued when drying, and this paper works very well for that. Also, if I want to use color in my artwork, I try not to use colored papers as they may potentially fade; instead, I generally paint it with acrylics.

Ida Salamon: The first impression I had when I saw your wearable paper cuts was that they possess a fairytale quality. The ones you make for models are alluring, and the ones for kids are full of joy. From what do you draw most of your inspiration?

Stuart McLachlan: I think finding the beauty and innocence within these images is the primary goal, making the paper section of the image sit absolutely naturally with the human form. This is helped, of course, by photography, and I have been lucky to have worked with the talented Simon Cardwell on most photographic collaborations you see here.
Nature is my main inspiration; I love animals and have always drawn them. When looking closely at nature, we can just mimic or try and reflect it, but there is no possible way to surpass its complexity and pure genius. I suppose the fairytale quality comes from watching animations as a kid such as Fantasia, Pinocchio, and the influence of artists such as Magritte, Degas, and Dali.

Ida Salamon: Your work has not only beauty but a deep message as well. For your show “In Hope We Trust,” you made an upside-down artwork of the Empire State Building, giving it the name “State of Mind.” You created a row of Corinthian columns which are falling apart to illustrate the negative impact of the empire. What are to you the most important values of society which you want to draw attention to?

Stuart McLachlan: Clearly, the environmental impact on our natural world is of pressing urgency. As humans, we are taught to achieve in career, wealth, status, power, ambition, etc. These traits are absolutely human and qualities that have led to significant advances and inventions. But, on the other hand, it also led to excess and waste, which is causing a dangerous imbalance in our natural world. Reflection and empathy are where I want to drive the viewer. To not take the obvious left or right perspective but build an opinion based on deep thought, facts, and accurate history of the situation.

Ida Salamon: In the comments in which you describe your work, you give us the impression of a sensitive and empathic person. You also posted a photo of your grandfather, who was deported to the concentration camp Dachau. Please tell us something about you and your ancestors?

Stuart McLachlan: My father is Australian, and my mother is Slovenian from the former Yugoslavia. During WW2, my grandfather Frank Jurisevic was working as a spy with Tito’s Partisans who were fighting the Nazis; he owned the pub in a little town very close to the Italian border. The soldiers and local German commanders would get drunk there. He tried to befriend the commanders in order to find out where supplies and other strategic areas were. Movement around the site was restricted due to the German presence.
Still, the befriended commandants would let him accompany them in their limousines, and sometimes he would see things he usually shouldn’t. He would report this back to the Partisans who were based in the forests surrounding, and they would blow up stores of ammunition, supplies, etc. This obviously started to get some attention, and at 2am in the morning, the Gestapo arrested him and a bunch of other guys in his village. After a short stint at a smaller concentration camp, he was sent to Dachau, where he had the horrible job of working at the crematorium in the camp and then eventually was transferred to a job in the BMW factory. After being in Dachau for about one and a half years, he was one of the few Slovenians that survived and was liberated by the Americans, weighing only 45 kg. He was 6ft 2”.
The war ended, and because he has been vocal and upset at how the Tito Government was running things, he ended up in prison for another six months! Ahh, grandpa, he was a gentleman but didn’t take kindly to injustice. My mother, Danica Jurisevic, came to Australia as a refugee after fleeing across the Communist Yugoslavia border for a better life. She spent several years in a refugee camp in Italy and managed to get on a B.O.A.C. flight with twelve other young women to Adelaide in the late 1950s.
She married my father, Rex McLachlan, who came from a farming background but ended up working for the leading newspaper in Adelaide. My mother worked very hard as a nurse at the main Psychiatric hospital in Adelaide until she retired. My dad used to bring the newspaper home every day, and apart from the comics section, which was always great, I loved reading the international section. Being so far away in Australia, I found it fascinating and learned a lot about other counties and their current political situations.
I think this and my mother’s background had a major impact on me and why my art has such a solid socio-political message. Empathy is the key to understanding anything, followed by compassion and then hopefully action.

Ida Salamon: You are able to create a parallel world with buildings and trains, people and animals, woods and stars. What stories or messages do you want to tell us with these scenes?

Stuart McLachlan: It’s a simple message, really. We are here; we have built an incredible society with fantastic creativity and invention. We have to look at the stars, nature, everything, and balance these accomplishments against that. People respond to and connect with nature, so I use this aspect in my work to remind us what we may be sacrificing. The stories are of fragility and balance. Every action has a reaction, and the more these reactions are positive, the better chance both man and nature will be able to thrive.

Ida Salamon: Your vintage illustrations take us back to the past: the colors you choose, the images, and faraway places. Where does this kind of creativity come from?

Stuart McLachlan: I have always dreamt of traveling to exotic lands. When I was thirteen, I went to Europe and couldn’t believe the diverse, beautiful world outside of my country. Even though I’ve traveled a lot, I still romanticize it. To be honest, one of the main reasons for doing my art was to use it as a vehicle to be sent overseas! I loved the vintage-era posters and wanted to create those same exotic themes and lighting that embodied a destination. Whether you’ve been to a place or not, it is possible to convey the mood, weather, and light that embodies it if you can put your romantic version down on paper.

Ida Salamon: Some of your installations are huge, like the one you made for a theatre or the big red shiny revolving Christmas ball. How much time did you need to complete it?

Stuart McLachlan: This is obviously a team effort by very talented, experienced craftspeople in their own right. I’m happy to bounce their ideas off mine and integrate them into the final piece.
Some installations took months of work to get to the final result. Several trips took me to New Zealand for the ‘World of Wearable Art’ project. The set had to be erected live onstage within a few minutes as part of the performance, where one hundred and fifty performers danced and acted around it for a 20-minute set. It then had to be taken down again live during the performance and walked offstage through a narrow exit. We had to use a material that was durable, strong, light that looked like paper which needed to be used over fifteen performances. It wasn’t easy, but it worked really well. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Ida Salamon: There is a stamp you created for the Christmas Islands. It is one of your many collaborative works with other countries and companies around the world. Is this your main economical source as an artist?

Stuart McLachlan: Yes, I do a fair bit of work overseas. I make all of my income as an artist through sculpture art and illustration. I am currently working on an image for The Wall Street Journal and concept designs for the first in a series of book covers for a crime novelist for Penguin publishing in New York. I recently finished a job for a product going to India for the fantastic chef Heston Blumenthal which was very interesting. It’s crazy what and who you end up working with on projects; I have been really fortunate to have worked with companies such as Wrigley Company in the U.S.A, Singapore Airlines, Fiat, and even for the Call of Duty gaming franchise, amongst others.
Australia also provides a good dose of really interesting jobs, and I’m always grateful for the opportunities I have here.

Ida Salamon: Your work has been part of many exhibitions and auctions at Christie’s Auction house. What achievement gives you the most pride?

Stuart McLachlan: Well, that was pretty cool; I met up with Susan Cohn Rockefeller (An award-winning documentary filmmaker) and the director of International acquisitions for Christie’s. A few years back, I have done several Australian postage stamp series, including the Xmas nativity ones.
I was really proud of the set for World of Wearable Art because it was something that I had never done before. I was blown away by the combination of the lighting, performances, and the music of Ennio Morricone’s movie score from “The Mission.” I had never seen the actual set put together until the night of the first performance; it was quite emotional; my wife Cindy actually cried when she saw it.

Ida Salamon: Where could we see your works in the near future?

Stuart McLachlan: I have a small show in November at my Sydney gallery as a preview for a larger one next year.
Also, the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and the Hazelhurst Art Show will feature works in the New Year. I’m in the middle of producing the imagery, hoarding, and logo assets for a new area development in Melbourne, which will be built soon. I am currently seeking gallery representation in Europe and abroad to show my work, so perhaps I’ll be closer to a few more of you soon!

stuart-mclachlan.com | Facebook: @StuartMclachlanPaper | Instagram: @stuart_mclachlan

Read the full article in the Gold List Special Edition #6