Fragility and interdependence underpin both the human body and the natural environment—integral, interconnected systems in which a single rupture can reverberate through the whole. Being a breast cancer survivor, this awareness informs a practice grounded in themes of connection, vulnerability, resilience, and the cycles of life & death.

I am Cathy Stanley (b. 1965), a South African papermaker and paper-painting artist. My practice explores colour, fragmentation, and intuitive mark-making. I was mentored in papermaking by my mother, the pioneering papermaker Elizabeth Vels, and I construct vivid paper paintings from hand-dyed, torn fibre paper. My process often incorporates non-dominant-hand drawings, which I began developing after a wrist injury.

My work reflects on the human body within environmental spaces, as well as themes of fragility and connection. In recent years, my work has been included in group exhibitions, and I have collaborated on commissions and curatorial projects across South Africa, reflecting my commitment to both personal practice and collective artistic engagement.

As a papermaker, using new techniques, I manipulate dyed natural fibre papers by hand in a wet state, working directly onto the surface and leaving them to dry. The process is intuitive, slow, unpredictable, and serendipitous.

I think through substance and process. Gesture and mark-making reference drawings made with my non-dominant hand, allowing vulnerability, loss of control, and embodiment to guide the work. Through this practice, material, process, and meaning become inseparable—echoing the delicate balance between resilience and rupture that defines both the human body and the natural world..