FOLDING IN COLOR: ORIGAMI LANDSCPAES Exhibit on View at University of Michigan Gifts of Art Gallery thru 4/8

Artist Linda Stephen's origami collage landscapes are featured for two months in a solo exhibit "Folding in Color: Origami Landscapes" at the University of Michigan Health System's Gifts of Art Gallery. The exhibit, which includes more than a dozen artworks, opens in February and runs through Monday April 8, 2013.

The gallery is located on the second floor of the main University Hospital at 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI. The exhibit is free and open to the public daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Linda Stephen's origami bas relief landscapes incorporate elements of the Japanese textile arts of origami (paper folding), oshi-e (paintings from quilted silk scraps) and chigiri-e (painting with paper). Each piece incorporates Japanese washi, yuzen fabric papers, handmade papers and original origami 3D sculptures.

Stephen lived and worked in Japan as a teacher and translator for seven years. She first went to Japan on a scholarship from the State of Michigan to study at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities.

Seeing origami as a metaphor for hope, she is inspired by nature - from the bustle of farmers markets, to cranes circling a snowy corn field, to children skipping in the rain. Linda Stephen's origami art landscapes are part of public and private collections across the U.S. and Japan, from the JW Marriott Grand Rapids' Sister City Collection to the City Hall in Omihachiman, Shiga, Japan.

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