Mixed media draws new audience; buyers represent three distinct and important sources of business

Mixed media art is gaining a fresh audience, according to artists and publishers alike. Interior designers, fresh collectors and longtime buyers of traditional and classical art, they say, are being drawn to mixed media works for their intense use of multidimensional constructions of paint, textiles, metals, paper and any other set objects that the artist may use. The many webs and layers of such works challenge viewers to direct the eye at everyday objects such as a rusty nail, or a salt crystal, in a different light.

"It (mixed media) has become more legitimate and accepted than it has been in the past," says Ron Rybak, president of Tele Graphics, Longwood FL "Galleries are true aware of this and are buying accordingly. When you use a allotment of different mediums, you can exhibit very interesting effects. Mixed media has definitely become an art form that race are seeking out when they want to purchase art. And you see more than just the mixing of oil and acrylics."

"Mixed media has always been popular with customers and collectors," pay attention tos Deljou Art Group's Daniel Deljou "It is all about the issue the artist creates on the canvas, or panel. on the other hand the end result has to be unique and different from previous techniques--that's what makes it beautiful"

The Atlanta-based Deljou Art assemblage represents several mixed media artists, whose works engross everything from oil to wax; and silver leaf to photography, similar as artist Martin Quen, whose "Semme 6" upon plexi uses acrylic and wax.

"One of the mediums Martin uses that direct the eyes very modern is painting upon plexi," Deljou says. "Like a graffiti artist, he uses paint, spray and acrylic to give it a actual contemporary look."

Craig Alan, upon the other hand, works with photography, encaustic, acrylic, etching, oil and collage.

"If you just want to talk about mixed media," Deljou says, "Craig Alan is the master. He uses each technique there is. He has with equal reason much knowledge about mixing mediums together."

Media of Choice

Tele Graphics has showcased original mixed media artwork since 1984 Rybak says he's seen a spike in demand above the last five years. And metals, he says, are becoming quite the media of choice.

"I'm seeing a a great deal of broader use of more metals, whether they are polished or burnished. Certainly you diocese all kinds of metal wall sculptures"

Tele Graphics exhibits artist Joy Broe, whose work is particularly popular because of the textural qualities she uses, Rybak says. Broe creates original, mixed media art upon paper, canvas and wood panels, and works with oils, acrylics and metals, oftentimes etched with acid and lacquered.

Her of recent origin "Journey" diptych employs a palette of cinnamon, fruit of the plum-tree ochre, teal green and sage combined with cent and brass metals. Oils and acrylics are used and sealed with several layers of lacquer. The plant can be hung as either verticals or horizontals.

In "Cornerstone," a four-piece, mixed media put on paper, Broe has etched the cent and brass metals with acid to bring forward the pieces' distressed look. "Joy's work is true textural, very tactual," Rybak says. "People answer to her sense of color, the light bouncing not on of the metals, and the deepness of her pieces. They are almost like sculpture"

Many mixed media artists incorporate personal photos, or alphabetic characters and other papers into collage-style pieces. In many cases, the facts mean something to the artist upon a personal level.

Kerry Hallam, who lives in fresh England and is inspired by means of the beauty of the sea, creates mixed media with actual navigational charts and maps for many waterways and coastal areas. His work also combines silkscreen, brushwork, crayon, and a mix of results that often elicit an "emotional response" from the buyer says Eric Dannemann, COO of Chalk & Vermilion Fine Arts, Greenwich, CT He proffers the following as an example: "The of gold Gate Bridge is inseparable from any image or recollection about any nautical experience that takes place in or around the San Francisco Bay. When clan see the charts that Hallam creates of the San Francisco area, there is many times an audible sigh as nation immediately recall, for example, a awe-inspiring vacation they might have taken there."

Everything as Art

Paso Roble CA-based artist Aleah Koury dioceses most materials and even household items as potential existences d'art. He incorporates collage, printing, ground objects and many different emblems of paint media in his work. He says his diverse background--a bachelor's stage in ceramics and a master's in printmaking--influences his willingness to experiment with of recent origin materials.

"I've at no time looked at any one medium as a fast track to making art," Koury explains. "I gaze at everything as being either a mark-making tool or mark-making material."

Fire is single of Koury's favorite mark-making tools. And publicly he's using salt. Koury dissolves it in water, adds pigment, sprays it onto paper and then allows the salt to recrystalize. "It's in like manner beautiful, and so tough," he says. He describes the salt crystals upon his "Oh Happy Days" original mixed media collage pieces. "If you direct the eyeed at it in real life, you would diocese all of these little four-sided crystals that throw back rays of light, like a faceted stone."