Eleftheria Easley
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NOVA-based collage artist Eleftheria Easley has created mixed media works since occupying her first studio space, a high-chair piled with art supplies, including her older siblings’ sewing notions and drafting tools. This formative environment fostered her resourcefulness and exploration of papers and textiles as raw materials for making art.
Her work showcases the extraordinary within the ordinary. Each piece of art tells a story where the materials not only build tactile layers, but their origins also relate to the final image and add depth of meaning. By cutting and shaping papers, textiles and found items collected on travels from around the world, she reveals the visual and thematic
links that join and contrast them. Her work is both highly personal and widely relatable so as to spark a moment of connection with the viewer.
Eleftheria works primarily on paper or canvas but also use non-traditional background surfaces. Depending upon the work, she sometimes tacks down the collage elements with glue dots and embroidery, or paints and seals them with liquid adhesive, or
assembles and affixes the layers with metal brads. She up-cycles ordinary odds and ends alongside precious and upscale materials, promoting sustainability and the potential of each item to be reimagined in a new context.
Her pieces are held in private collections within the United States, Italy, and Peru and have been on display as part of a cultural outreach initiative in the Republic of Korea.
Earning her BFA in Graphic Design at Boston University, Eleftheria is also a military veteran who has lived throughout the United States, and in both Europe and Asia. She has worked as a graphic designer, a maker at arts and crafts fairs, an event planner and as a custom framer. She is currently a member of Gallery Underground in Arlington, VA,
Artists’ Undertaking Gallery in Occoquan, VA, Del Ray Artisans in Alexandria, VA and select print reproductions of hers are part of the gallery space at Old Town Editions in Alexandria, VA.