“Mixed Media Masters” at the Watchung Arts Center during the month of February

Nancy Ori and Heidi Sussman will exhibit “Mixed Media Masters” at the Watchung Arts Center from February 1 through February 28, 2019. Located at 18 Stirling Road in Watchung, the exhibit is free and open to the public Tuesday through Friday from noon – 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 – 3. An opening reception and artists talk will be held on Sunday, February 10 from 1 – 4 p.m.

“Mixed Media Masters” is comprised of work by Nancy Ori and Heidi Sussman, two photographers who push the limits of traditional photographic imagery by combining their photos with various mixed media techniques. Both artists currently teach the specific processes seen in this exhibit in area art centers and workshops and will be offering an image transfer and cold wax workshop on Sunday, March 10 in Berkeley Heights.

Nancy Ori, owner of New Jersey Media Center in Berkeley Heights, is respected internationally as an industrial photographer and video producer for over three decades. She teaches workshops both locally and internationally and was affiliated for many years with the Ansel Adams Workshop in California. She currently teaches privately and is on the faculty of numerous museums and art centers throughout the state.

Her current body of work now addresses her fascination with layering images by running the same paper through her printer several times to receive different images that overlap each other, working with positive and negative space as well as using collage to layer images on top of each other to create a final concept for interpretation.

Ori says, “I began printing images of fingerprints, faces, hands, trees, barren branches, and leaves to see how they could be combined or layered in some way to make additional statements. I like to prepare my layered images on artist panels and framed in float frames. It helps to move them further away from being straight photographs to a more artistic presentation. Even though they are all straight photographs, they take on a more painterly look.”

Heidi Sussman, an exhibiting photographer, instructor, and mixed media artist who maintains a studio practice in East Orange, NJ, mixes natural and digital art media with her images. She experiments with various techniques and papers to create texture and mood not apparent in a traditional flat, two dimensional photograph. Her images, both abstract as well as representational, presented on paper as well as wooden panels and canvas, incorporate image transfers and collage which integrate both hot and cold wax processes. “To me experimentation is everything and as an artist I am process-driven. I am constantly combining my photographs with both natural and digital art media often creating much of my work on my iPhone or iPad.”

The Watchung Arts Center cultivates an eclectic mix of professional and emerging artists in the performing and visual arts. Appreciation of painting, photography, and music from classical to folk to jazz to coffee house, comedy, theater, and mind/body arts including yoga is fostered through classes, workshops, and performances. All are structured to catch and expand the interest of youngsters of an early age to seniors of any age. For more information contact wacenter@optonline.net or call 908-753-0190.

For more information on the exhibit please contact Heidi Sussman at 201-207-9777 or by email at orheidi.sussman@gmail.com.

(above) Photo by Nancy Ori, whose work will be on display at the Watchung Arts Center from February 1 through February 28, 2019.

(above) Photo by Heidi Sussman, whose work will also be on display. An opening reception and artists talk will be held on Sunday, February 10 from 1 – 4 p.m.