Diane Dunn has folded many thousands of origami cranes.
"I started folding cranes — oh my goodness — probably close to 20 years ago," she said. "Maybe even longer."
Since then, the Kenai artist has folded multiple batches of 1,000 paper cranes — for a family wedding, for the Kenai Peninsula Peace Crane Garden Trails and for Hospice of the Central Peninsula.
To her, the value of making cranes is many fold. She’ll be sharing that process with others at the Kenai Art Center this month during two crane-folding sessions for peace in Ukraine.
"I know I feel helpless at the moment watching the news, watching what’s happening to Ukraine, the people in Ukraine," Dunn said. "And I can find a place to donate money, which I know must be needed to help people. And yet, it’s like — What could I do as an artist to express myself? And the first thing that comes to mind is folding cranes."
Paper cranes hold a special place in Dunn’s heart, and in Japanese culture.
It’s said that 1,000 paper cranes are good luck and can speed a sick person’s recovery. Dunn points to the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who developed leukemia after she was exposed to radiation from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. She set out to fold 1,000 cranes and, when she died, her classmates folded many hundreds more.
"So there’s that wish-to-help-others aspect of folding the cranes," she said. "And it was after the war, or during the war, so the idea of folding them in the name of peace."
Dunn said folding can be a meditative process for the artist, too. It’s a time to create when there feels like there’s not a whole lot else to do.
"If someone just feels isolated and watching TV all day, come sit with us and fold," she said. "And I think just the intention behind what we would do, folding these cranes — I think we just help each other out. Giving each other support so that we in turn can maybe find another way to volunteer or to do something in our community."
Dunn and Kenai artist Abbey Ulen, both on the art center's board of directors, will be folding cranes and teaching others at the art center on March 19 and 26 between 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. No experience is required and origami paper will be provided.
Dunn plans to display the finished cranes atop the piano in the art center once they’re finished.
