I like working in cut paper. It appeals to me because I can take colors and patterns that exist as flat paper, and make them into something three-dimensional. I've been working this way for about a year.

When I was selecting a haiku, I knew I wanted to illustrate something with an animal. The way I work with cut paper really lends itself to depicting feathers and textures. I've also used leaves in previous images, so the heron and leaves tied together well.

I wanted a solid frame around the image with the leaves overlapping to create depth. Usually I work in more square or horizontal formats, but here I felt that the vertical format would complement shape of the bird.