The semester’s first art exhibit in the University Union’s Art Gallery features an artist who uses paper to showcase her art, Zahra Ammar.

Often referred to as a paper artist by her online following, Ammar uses the paper medium to fold and cut it into a 3D picture, some of which she said can take days to complete.

“It all depends on the technique involved in the piece,” Ammar said. “It normally takes me three to four days from preparation to execution and it can take up to a month. The larger pieces in the gallery have merely took me up to three weeks each to complete.”

When asked about the inspiration for Spring Delusions, Ammar sited T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land.” Ammar said lines such as “April is the cruelest month” played a role in her art featured in the gallery.

“When I first read those lines ‘April is the cruelest month,’ I was like, what is he trying to say,” Ammar said. ‘[The line] interested me because wherever there is beauty, there is always danger of it going away, and that in itself makes it beautiful.’”

Students said they noticed the precise paper folding and cutting techniques in the exhibit.

“All of it looks carefully and meticulously made,” said Sacramento State computer engineering major Andy Chhoun.

Radia Abdelnur, a Sac State child development major, said she noticed Ammar using two different styles in her work.

“They’re very beautiful, I get the sense that the artist is really pushing the boundaries of geometric and nature,” Abdelnur said.

Ammar says she is trying to communicate with the viewer through her art at Spring Delusions.

“I wanted to show people that it doesn’t matter about your race, language or ethnicity or your background or even your education,” Ammar said.

The gallery’s hours are Monday-Friday from 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. and Wednesday-Thursday from 5 p.m.-8 p.m., and the exhibition will go on until Sept. 20.