Patrick Gannon admits he loves puzzles. As a literature major and aspiring writer in university, he delighted in deconstructing ideas and consciously pulling together disparate pieces to make a whole. Twenty years later, as a "cut paper" artist in Japan, Gannon, 40, employs the same intellectual techniques, albeit with a different artistic medium.

Cut paper art, or kiri-e as it is known here, originated in China in the early second century, along with the invention of paper.

"When you look at Japanese paper art, kiri-e is the traditional form that came over from China," Gannon explains. "It is typically one layer of paper, usually a black sheet, laid on top of either white paper or with bits of colored paper behind it."