Pushing the boundaries of traditional artmaking, artists who work in mixed media experiment with different materials to create art that challenges perception and invites closer study. The materials and techniques they use range from the artistic to everyday and can include found objects, paint, fiber, resin, paper and digital tools.
Blue Jean Baby
Artist Eve B, who grew up in Perth Australia, is known for her painted and textural artworks which she describes as textile-based sculptures. Experimenting with flat art, she soon moved into the field of mixed media. “One day, I just wanted to come off the canvas so I ripped up a bedsheet, played with some products, and since then, it’s just been an exploration of different fabrics.” Eve adds another layer of dimensionality and a high gloss sheen to her textile sculptures with her use of resin.
Eve’s recent series, “Cuff It,” highlighting sustainably sourced denim, evokes a nostalgia for denim while referencing several musical influences. One of the larger pieces, at 48 by 48 inches, “Jailhouse Rock,” is made with thrifted black and white denim. “In 1957, Elvis was asked by Levi’s to wear black denim in the ‘Jailhouse Rock’ video …and that’s when black denim became cool,” she says.
Describing artmaking as meditative, Eve explains that inspiration can come from anywhere, but mostly from her travels and mother nature, often photographing wild terrain versus bustling city sightings. A lot of the time, it’s subconscious. “Art is a form of self-care,” she says. “I feel I have to create to take care of myself and I will lean into the flow of where it goes.”
Follow Eve on Instagram @eveb_art
Natural Composition
Ellen Schiffman of Weston initially considered herself a fiber artist as she mostly created artworks using quilting, sewing, felting, weaving and fiber techniques. Her repertoire quickly grew and today she is fully a multimedia artist that synthesizes a wide array of techniques, including photography, cyanotyping, eco-printing and bookmaking.
Schiffman is a collector at heart who gathers found objects during walks, whose shapes, forms, colors, movement, and moods she recreates in her art. “I use inspiration from nature in my work. I like the organic form; I’m not a very symmetrical kind of person,” she says. “I am fascinated by imperfection and so I explore imperfection and serendipity a lot. My work is not literal, it’s more abstract.”
Schiffman’s artworks often play off one another and she finds that mixed media challenges her. “Because I work in so many different materials, there are always challenges,” she says. “Everything you do as an artist — at least, for me — is a building block for what comes next.”
One seminal piece she did a dozen years ago continues to inspire her today. To mark a milestone birthday, she created the “52 Box Project,” creating a 9-inch work each week for a whole year incorporating different materials such as cotton swabs, beach rocks, handmade silk paper and photography. “I won’t sell any of those pieces. It’s a diary of a year of my creative life,” she says.
Roll the Dice
Rising artist and owner of Design with Dice, Johnny Face Off specializes in mosaic artworks composed of 12mm black and white dice. His Instagram account @DesignWithDice features sped-up videos of him creating artworks by placing dies, one by one, row by row.
His first mosaic artwork debuted in 2023. “I was experimenting with different mediums. I am a big fan of mosaic artworks and I like random mediums,” he says. “I landed on dice and it wasn’t perfect, but I knew I was onto something.”
Most measure 3 by 4 feet and comprise thousands of dice, taking about two weeks to four weeks to complete. His largest pieces measure over 8 feet long and use over 14,000 dice! “It’s been a lot of experimenting. When I first started, I would take an image, grayscale it, slap it into Photoshop, and then I would manually figure out the spaces,” he says. “The white areas would be ‘6’ dice because that would be the lightest, and the darkest grayscale would be ‘1’ dice as they only have one pip (dot). I would manually figure out where the dice would be placed,” he says. He is careful not to reveal his exact process but says he now utilizes digital techniques and an algorithm to map
out designs.
Johnny Face Off and Eve B will be featured in an exhibition this summer at D. Colabella Fine Art Gallery in Ridgefield. The show opens on July 17th and runs until September 14th. •
