Mixed Media, Mosaics

Mixed Media and Mosaics

Modern society has presented us with a huge variety of materials that have been creatively adapted by new artists. Materials that were intended for utilitarian uses have been re-purposed and mixed. Providing fresh opportunities for artistic expression to explore texture, color, pattern and form.

Bill Wilson wm.cswilson@gmail.com

I enjoy working with gourds because they provide the opportunity to use such a variety of techniques. I wood burn, carve, and cut them. To color them I use ink dyes, oil pastels, acrylic paints and Inktense pencils. I often embellish them with pine needle coiling. My more common motifs include flowers, fish, butterflies, leaves, holly and poinsettias with autumn leaves being my “trademark”. I also love going to a gourd farm and digging in the musty dusty bins for just the right gourd. And then working with the dirty moldy piece of vegetation and converting it into something beautiful enough to put in someone’s home.

Martha Jones greenmosaics.com mj@greenmosaics.com

Reuse and Recycle Artist

Professionally trained interior & architectural designer, Martha Jones, artist and owner of Green Mosaics, combines her passion for design, salvaging and reuse into creating recycled art for home & garden.

Intrigued by her mother’s Better Homes and Gardens magazines as a child, along with looking forward to local trash night, her unique art and approach blends her environmentally friendly attitude while also slowing down the amount of material put into landfills.

Birdbaths are created from discarded satellite dishes, terracotta chimney inserts are mosaiced into garden columns, table tops are made from leftover vinyl flooring, and junk mail, wallpaper and old calendars are used for collage picture frames and wall art.

Lin Schiffner www.linschiffner.com linschiffner@gmail.com

Fabric and Mixed Media Art

My focus on contemporary fabric and mixed media art began nearly 20 years ago after decades of more traditional quilting and exploration of other art forms. My artwork provides an avenue for artistic expression of my life experience and inspirational themes such as love, peace, environment, culture, and the sacred. The work combines personal and heartfelt subject matter with a passion for color and a compulsion for finely detailed craft. Creating art in my studio is a daily practice which brings joy, solace, hope, and purpose to my life.

Kris Johnson designsinfiber.com
krisjohnsonsilk@yahoo.com

Silk Collage & Handwovens

I am captivated by fiber as a means of artistic expression. Being a tactile person is the drawing force to my working in this medium. With a background in textile design and as a weaver, I developed my line of silk collages in the late 90’s. They are created using various weights of hand dyed silk. My works draws heavily on the play of light and shadow across the texture of fabrics. The process that is used to dye the silk and the way that the pieces are assembled give them their painterly quality. These collages are presented as matted and framed pieces, as well as on canvas. In addition to my silk work, I weave a limited number of wearable as well as decorative hand woven pieces.

Lori Humphrey nestingathome.etsy.com lorihumphrey90@gmail.com

Mosaic & Ceramic Art

I have worked with ceramics for over 30 years and recently started implementing glass and tile in to my art. I loved working with glass and tile so much that I have moved my art emphasis more in to mosaic creations. I love to take old 1900's windows, create scenes and pictures, to then re-hang in a window for the light to make it sparkle and come alive! I call it "Painting with Glass". I also enjoy creating "tribute guitars" of famous artists from the past. I love color and whimsy which is reflected in my work.

I have resided in Nevada County for over 25 years where my husband and I raised our two daughters and owned a local retail business.

I offer mosaic classes at my studio and enjoy doing commission work.

Liz Collins lizcollinsart.com lizstudio123@gmail.com

Working with oil pastels for the past 20 years, the move into mixed media this past year has sparked an exciting, new creative path for me.

The work is a spirited exploration of planes, transparency and the use of maps and other found writings as both texture and metaphor. Using the line of selected planes breaks the solidity of the surface and gives the piece a life of its own. The serendipity of color placement and freedom to use whatever color wherever I desire is like being let free from a box into the wild.

Oil pastels and acrylics as my” background” media I mostly work on panel that has been gessoed, then finally, coated with an archival varnish.

Yvon Dockter ynotdoc@aol.com

I've learned that I love to combine materials. I always search for different materials to work with and to add with one another. I've recently been working with metal and enjoy combining metal with ceramic. It especially pleases me to reclaim 'Found Metal'

I also enjoy gathering indigenous materials in order to create strong clay bodies and striking and unusual glaze effects in my ceramic work. Although I've only been using metal for less than three years. I've been playing with clay for over 28 years.

Michael Larson Larson.michael3@gmail.com

Using primarily recycled metal, wood and glass, I create unique artistic expressions. I enjoy the challenge of taking discarded materials and giving them a new life as quality artwork.

My work ranges from the whimsical to the serious, from simple wind chimes to complex weldments.

Sharon Griffiths sharongriffiths@sbcglobal.net

"Flow" Encaustic by Sharon Griffiths

Encaustic Artist - Biography to come...