{"id":7033,"date":"2010-10-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/?p=11"},"modified":"2022-11-14T12:32:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T20:32:05","slug":"the-loss-of-an-artist-vanessa-gould-on-eric-joisel","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/the-loss-of-an-artist-vanessa-gould-on-eric-joisel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Loss of an Artist: Vanessa Gould Remembers Eric Joisel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world lost a gentle and brilliant origamist earlier this month in Eric Joisel, the master paper folder featured in Vanessa Gould’s Peabody Award-winning film <\/em>Between the Folds<\/a>. The film, which premiered on <\/em>Independent Lens last year and will be rebroadcast January 18, featured Joisel as “The Artist.” Gould sent us this tribute.<\/em>
\nWith the death of Eric Joisel, the French artist featured in Between the Folds<\/em>, comes an immense and, in many ways, indescribable sense of loss. Messages of sadness were emailed, tweeted and posted from all corners of the world. There remains a collective sense of sorrow, from friends, acquaintances and strangers alike. Eric was at the height of his career.<\/p>\n


\n“I wish I could fold my grief as you folded paper, for then it would be beautiful,” said one Twitterer. “Such a profound loss. I’m grieving,” said another. “He was too beautiful for this world,” wrote a Facebook user.
\nIn their grief, people took to folding paper themselves. Portraits of Eric – one from Australia<\/a>, another from Vietnam<\/a>. Scores of renderings of his easier pieces. Even a delicate butterfly<\/a> was created in his honor.
\nIt pains me deeply to think of what more Eric would have done in the years ahead – thoughts that won’t be had, things that won’t be made, creations we’ll never get to see. It seems that when an artist dies, we lose a bit of ourselves. A bit of our collective identity. A bit of our cultural treasure. And, yes, grief follows.
\nThe comforting converse to this is, of course, what artists so generously endow us with: objects, ideas, and a few seeds of inspiration to hopefully spring eternal.
\nI’m proud of Eric beyond words. He was a gentle artist from a tiny town outside Paris who, with some paper and the most fantastic of imaginations and skill, was able to give such a glorious gift to so many.<\/p>\n

Postscript: This obituary for Joisel<\/a> appeared in the New York Times<\/em>.
\n Australian Eric by Steven Casey. Vietnamese Eric by Nguyen Hung Cuong. Joisel Papillon (Butterfly) by Michael LaFosse and Richard Alexander.
\nPhoto Credits: Eric Joisel and Origami House, Japan. Video courtesy of Vanessa Gould. <\/small><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world lost a gentle and brilliant origamist earlier this month in Eric Joisel, the master paper folder featured in Vanessa Gould’s Peabody Award-winning film Between the Folds. The film, which premiered on Independent Lens last year and will be rebroadcast January 18, featured Joisel as “The Artist.” Gould sent us this tribute. 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