by justin strawser
SHAMOKIN - The bumps and edges, the crinkles and ridges, each add a different layer to the art hanging on the walls of The Northumberland County Council of the Arts and Humanities Fine Arts Gallery.
"Everything is textual. It's a means of pulling out a voice. Artists speak through their work. The materials call on each other while you're working," Michelle LaCrosse said Friday night during the opening reception of her two-woman art show, "2 Mixed Up Women: Art in Mixed Media" at the Career and Arts Center on Arch Street
LaCrosse, who is also the arts director, and Loryn Spangler-Jones, of Lancaster, presented 27 pieces of art between the two of them.
The concept of mixed media is using different forms of mediums, such as acrylic paint and ink, on the same canvas, or using a physical object that means something to the artist.
"They (the two mediums) can resist each other, but they can act in similar ways," LaCrosse said of the non-traditional way of doing art.
Her work revolves around an idea of an object or an actual found object incorporated into the piece. She uses acrylic paint, ink or floor wax. Combining and mixing the found objects, the work results in ephemeral objects becoming permanent and significant, she said.
LaCrosse said she used an object that resembles a part of a cage in one of the pieces, but she found it in a street in Georgia 20 years ago.
"Artists tend to be hoarders. They find something they like, and hold on to it," she said.
She said she met Jones, who was unable to attend Friday's event, because she was the neighbor of a friend, and later discovered she was an artist as well.
Through Jones, LaCrosse started experimenting with mixed medium.
"We have similar color palettes," she said of Jones, but "she purges the darkness while I focus on the positive."
LaCrosse describes Jones' work as a way to cleanse, to get over her anger and "her own form of slam poetry."
Jones quickly learned that mixing mediums in her work added both complexity and depth to each individual piece. Deconstruction is a fundamental element in her creative process.
Her process includes layer tissue paper, acrylic paints, spray paint and her signature material: liquid asphalt.
The opening reception was held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. and was free to attend and open to the public. It runs from Friday to April 4.
Gallery hours are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.