Folding up shop
After 10 years, a local origami master is ready to move on
HAVERHILL -- The Christmas tree in the window of Origamido Studio glistens with ornaments of shiny colored paper. Inside, a menagerie of origami creatures fills display cases and hangs from the ceiling. A gracefully contoured panther's mask could have been cast from an actual cat. An intricate paper squirrel looks ready to bound off the shelf and out the door.
Origami master Michael LaFosse is world-renowned for his ingenious ability to fold paper. Now he is folding something else: his tent.
For 10 years, the Fitchburg native and his partner, Richard Alexander , have operated this gallery, workshop, and retail space in downtown Haverhill, making the fine art of paper folding an unlikely cornerstone of the old industrial city's arts-district revitalization. This weekend marks the last opportunity for visitors: With their lease set to expire, the partners are closing their doors for good on Christmas Eve in preparation for a mid-2007 move to Hawaii.
"Michael is probably one of the top five origami artists in the whole nation," said Brian Chan , an MIT graduate student who was visiting Origamido for the final time last weekend with two dozen of his fellow origami club members. "He's been designing since before any of us were even born."
With help from his partner, the 49-year-old LaFosse is the author of more than 30 instructional books and host of another 16 videos and DVDs. Trained as a marine biologist, he specializes in complex designs inspired by the natural world, often using the process known as wet folding.
LaFosse's work has appeared in the Louvre, in Saks Fifth Avenue windows, and in a television ad for
"Michael has been doing programming in this area for so many years," said Jane Winchell, the exhibit's curator. "He's totally unselfish. He has an insatiable appetite for exposing people to origami."
That show will not only feature examples of the art form, it will explore its connections to other disciplines -- math, commercial design, even medicine. Origami, LaFosse said, is a skill that lends itself to critical thinking and systems analysis: "It's a plate to serve these subjects upon."
The partners also produce archival-quality handmade paper for some of the world's most recognized origami artists, including Japan's Satoshi Kamiya , who spent nearly a year in Haverhill learning the craft.
As the MIT-based group milled around, browsing through the gallery while waiting to begin one last master class, LaFosse stood near the door, greeting well-wishers and recalling his own introduction to the medium. Home from school with the flu, he was watching Channel 2 when he found himself entranced by a short segment on paper folding.
"It was right before 'Mister Rogers,' " he remembered.
Jason Ku , a wiry, 20-year-old MIT sophomore with a bit of chin scruff who is de facto head of the origami club, said most enthusiasts get their start at an early age.
"It's usually kids who are good at putting stuff together, like Lego," he said.
To LaFosse, a gently good-humored fellow who has taught countless Greater Boston students in extracurricular programs, origami is a constant exercise in using your brain power.
"Right here in this room, it's astonishing, the mental giants," he said, looking around.
His visitors were quick to return the praise. "He's the sensei, and we're the students," said Ku.
On a table in front of LaFosse sat one of his latest and most astonishing creations, a breadbox-size alligator folded from a single 6-foot square of
The artist noted that he has been witness in his lifetime to a "paradigm shift" in the centuries-old art form, with modern origami becoming exponentially more complex and realistic. During the 1970s and '80s, he said, "people from the math and engineering side" explored the geometric possibilities of the form, often using multiple pieces of paper in modular constructions.
Today, said Ku, "it's coming back around to elegance, feel, and beauty," as demonstrated by LaFosse's exceptionally lifelike creations.
For eight years prior to opening Origamido in November 1996, LaFosse and Alexander worked out of their Haverhill home. Serving on the city's Cultural Council, LaFosse listened to calls for an arts-anchored downtown revival.
"We took it to heart," he said.
He looked out the window at the neighboring shops and galleries. "We were the first presence on Wingate. This whole street was just derelict."
The partners, who have been visiting relatives of Alexander in Hawaii for years, say the move feels right, given the islands' intersection of American and Asian cultures. The weather isn't bad, either.
"Haverhill was a perfect testing ground for this type of venture," said Alexander. "We have no regrets."
Earlier this week, Haverhill 's mayor, James Fiorentini, wished his departing constituents well. "It's awfully hard to compete with Hawaii," he acknowledged.
In a separate phone interview, Haverhill Cultural Council chairwoman Lynn Murphy said she had her own painter's studio and business office across the street from Origamido for a few years.
"They're pretty much irreplaceable," she said. "Their clientele was international, and they did a great job with local programs. Every time anybody went in, they made a great effort for you to learn something new, to think about the world in a different way.
"It's too bad -- I was always intending to take a class there," she said with a laugh.
