Fragments: Mingling Materials – Liz Barick Fall

Fragments: Mingling Materials

Artist Liz Barick Fall presents her mixed media assemblage.

Show Dates: May 25 – June 17
Artist Reception: May 25, 2:00pm – 5:00pm

Liz Barick Fall is a Michigan artist working in photography, mixed media assemblage and installation. She is fueled by the combinations and intrinsic meaning of the materials, images and methods chosen to create each piece. The results yield an unexpected juxtaposition of 2D vs. 3D, of time vs. place, and of the fleeting moment vs. permanence of the material world, as she conjures renewed purpose and stories from cast-off vintage goods and her own eclectic collection of natural and man-made materials.

Though her content and techniques are ever evolving, the methodology, craftsmanship and deliberate consideration of every element, can be found throughout her work, imbued with memories, celebration, some darkness and also some humor.

(click image to view larger)

Bleeding Her Dry
Each piece in this series depicts the severe erosion along the shores of Lake Michigan in Sturgeon Bay that resulted from record high water levels compounded by climate change driven storm systems in 2019 to 2020. The photos were transferred to fabric and I embroidered the areas where the sand was falling like drips along the shoreline. The frames are made from driftwood collected from the beach.
4 piece series – Approx. 15 x 18 each
Inkjet print on cotton, thread, jute, driftwood
$500 each

Self Collected
This series (originally 8 pieces) contains collected items from many walks and years of accumulaVng various materials. Each of the photos, transferred into encaustic medium, were taken through a microscope of the natural items embedded within each piece. Each of the numbers correlates to my age when a significant life even happened.
4 of an 8 piece series – 6 x 6 each
Silver plates, encaustic, photo transfer, natural materials, glass vials, misc. studio items
$400 each

Monthly Moments of Zen
This is a parody of the taxidermy heads of various animals hunters memorialize and display with honor on their walls. Each of these is my “trophy” of a sunset I “shot”, one for each month of an entire year. Each plaque is tagged with a brass plate, inscribed with the date, Vme, place and exact coordinates of where I stood when taking the photo. Each little sunset jar is filled with various materials I collected along the water and in the woods near the location of the photos.
12 piece set – 5 x 7 each
Wood, glass, velvet, encaustic, photo transfer, stones, plants, beach glass
$2500 (sold only as a set)

Barn Stands, For Now
I have documented this barn for years as it slowly disintegrates. Every stage of decay I have photographed has its own distinct melancholy loveliness. It stands, beautifully isolated in a vast fallow farm field. It was a perfect fit for this vintage red shovel in its own stage of disrepair.
14 x 37
Vintage shovel, encausVc photo transfer, oil stick
$600

The Wondering
This is a photo looking up at my favorite birch tree, drenched in dramatic sunset light on a crisp fall day. The Birch is symbolic of the one who never stops wondering. Splicng the image into the 6 circles made by the vintage commercial cake pan, asks the viewer to complete the picture in their mind’s eye. With the glass covers, the pans look like giant petri dishes, something to keep watching to see what grows.
17 x 26
Vintage commercial strapped cake pans, encaustic image transfer, glass, handmade aluminum brackets
$2000

A Midsummer Day’s Dream
Photo of native grass and wildflower prairie I helped to establish in my community, transferred onto a vintage cast iron griddle in encausVc medium framed with gold leaf. Cosmos represent balance which this field now has in it’s environment.
12 x 10
Vintage cast iron, encaustic photo transfer, gold leaf
$700

Peony Paradiso
Peonies symbolize honor, and this photo of gorgeous peonies in my yard, is a tribute to my mom who had a bed of them lining the driveway in the home I grew up in. It is transferred onto a vintage cast iron griddle in encaustic medium, inscribed with a drawing that extends beyond the frame around the perimeter of the photo, and framed with copper leaf. An appropriate substrate for a woman who was also an extraordinary cook.
24 x 11
Vintage cast iron, encaustic photo transfer, oil stick, copper leaf
$800

Bonnie Blue
A photo of mesmerizing blue poppies in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland, transferred onto a vintage cast iron griddle in encaustic medium, inscribed with a drawing that extends beyond the frame around the perimeter of the photo, and framed with gold leaf. Blue poppies are known to represent imagination, potential and endless possibilities.
22 x 9
Vintage cast iron, encaustic photo transfer, oil stick, gold leaf
$800

Relics
These relics are fragments from the past; cast off, obsolete implements from a different place and time that carry with them their own utilitarian history along with the remnants of the lives lived by those who used them. What I do, is give these relics a new life, new purpose, new context, as the previous function and memories of days gone by remain within.
Various sizes
Vintage home and garden implements, encaustic, photo transfer, gold leaf
$80-$400