From individual strips of colorful, methodically folded paper, Yulia Brodskaya’s vibrant compositions take wing. In a new series of quilled artworks, the artist (previously) taps into her love of drawing to emphasize the power of a line.

“In my paper art practice, a drawn two-dimensional line is represented by a three-dimensional strip of paper glued on its edge,” Brodskaya says. For her mini-series of birds, the dimensionality of each line symbolizes ethereality and energy made visible.

In “Nature of Things,” for example, a kingfisher sits on the edge of a leaf, which appears to overflow with a geometric grid evocative of quantum illustrations of black holes.

Foliage initially inspired the composition. “I was just sitting, observing its shape, following the curving lines with my eyes, and it didn’t take long to receive a vision of a superimposed toroidal shape…” she says, “like an organising principle that has always been there.”

Find more of Brodskaya’s work on her website, and peek into her practice on Instagram.