Bud and Betty Micheels
student artist-in-residence grant

TONYA BALIK 2005-06

The practice of capturing the ephemeral/fleeting—the often overlooked elements of daily life—began when I got my first 110 camera for my eighth birthday. This became a daily habit when I purchased my first digital camera.
Whether it is a specific color or composition, a fabric or a random detail or perhaps even a mundane detail of my life, I rely on photography to document my surroundings. The images I capture are important narrative elements for my current body of mixed-media paintings.

Using the photographs in multi-layered paintings, I create a visual record of my life on top of screen printed patterns of knitting, crocheting and woven fabric textures. The photographs are then concealed underneath layers of secondary imagery that is derived from maps, which function as visual references to specific times and places.

Untitled