Retired schoolteacher Alan Sidman took a detour when returning to Brooklyn from a recent family visit in Chicago. He flew into Pittsburgh International Airport, rented a car, and drove to Greensburg to see an exhibition at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

Mr. Sidman is among 21 members of The Guild of American Papercutters featured in "Cutting Our Own Paths: Contemporary Works by Paper Artists." His two remarkable untitled pieces fall on the nontraditional end of the stylistic spectrum represented. They are diligently cut, geometrically patterned panels of interlocking rectangles and of triangle-pierced circles.

Westmoreland curator Barbara Jones was inspired to organize the exhibition after sitting in on a brown-bag lecture by GAP member Kathy Trexel Reed.

"It was not what I expected. A lot of [the papercutters] reflect back on the history, and then there's a twist. They insert their own personal selves," she says.

Ms. Jones had scheduled the concurrent exhibition, "Rooted in Tradition: Art Quilts from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum," and was looking for a companion show for the smaller Walsh Gallery. The papercutters were thinking along the same lines as the art quilters, she says. "It was the perfect pairing."

That the exhibitors see themselves as equal to those who employ other media, such as clay or glass, was emphasized by their request to change the word "papercutters" in Ms. Jones' original title to "paper artists." That distinction explains variance from historic norms, such as use of painted backgrounds or collage. Joseph Bagley begins with a traditional silhouette form in "Jen," but then fills it with branching trees to further personalize the portrait.

GAP ran a call for artists in its newsletter, and Ms. Jones chose 27 works from submissions.

"It was hard to narrow them down. I selected for a range of skill and to show diversity of subjects and designs and approaches." She regretted having to reject work from the Netherlands and Italy, explaining to the artists that the Westmoreland's purview is American art.

The artists hail from 10 states, ranging from Vermont to Texas, with the largest number from Pennsylvania. Four are men. Eight are also exhibited in the current show at The Guild of American Papercutters National Museum.

Those include Marie-Helene L. Grabman, with another of her "Pennsylvania Memories" series, but also a three-dimensional row of "Trees with Cardinals." Carolyn Guest, who snips with sheep shears in the Polish tradition, exhibits a six-paneled narrative, "Passages," showing land changing from wild to cultivated. Sandra Gilpin's colorful "American Quilt #2" visually and symbolically connects with the adjacent quilt show, as does Kathy Trexel Reed's blue and white "Quilted Paper," comprising folded and cut washi origami arranged in a grid.

Among artists unique to the Westmoreland show are Linda Harrill Peck, with a realistic three-dimensional purple "Pansy" and silhouetted "Weeping Willow"; Catherine Winkler Rayroud, whose nail-scissors cut "Where Is My Pot?" features another craft with pottery-related scenes cut into a large pot shape that recalls a tree of life format; and Kathleen Trenchard's "Bongo Joe," a large (72 by 48 inches) figural cutout that is ingeniously completed by the shadow it casts upon the wall behind it. Naomi Hordes' "Proverbs" represents the Jewish tradition of making papercuttings to decorate the eastern walls of homes and synagogues.

Each of the exhibitions provide a solid introduction to papercutting art in the 21st century. Seen together, they indicate the direction of its future.

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