Delaware artist Jacquelyn Cox will debut her body of mixed media work titled “Reflections of Nature” Friday evening at Gallery 22, located in downtown Delaware at 22 E. Winter St.
Gallery 22 is open from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and Cox’s work will be on display to the public from May 3 to June 22.
Cox, an artist, painter, printmaker, sculptor, nature lover, and at times when it’s required, a construction worker, said she loves the outdoors and nature. All of Cox’s pieces are inspired by her love of the great outdoors.
The first piece that is seen walking through the door of Gallery 22 is a large painting of an octopus, which is a mixed media piece.
Cox said while on a family vacation in Hawaii, she picked up a few black pebbles from the beach, which she used in the painting of the octopus. Looking closely at the octopus painting, the black pebbles can be found glued on the tentacles to represent the suction cups.
Cox also has a couple of stained glass sculptures and a butterfly that she created out of a bicycle rim that also hangs on the wall.
But, her favorite thing to do is something that she really doesn’t have any control over, enameling. Cox said she never knows what she is going to get from fusing powdered glass to a copper plate.
“I always work on copper,” she said. “No one can ever make the same tile again. It’s one of a kind.”
Cox said that after the tile comes from the kiln and is cooled, she stares at it to pick out the dominant shapes that pop out at her. She then continues the process by highlighting the shapes she sees and then refires the tile.
Cox added part of her exhibit is interactive. She will hang a few tiles on the back wall of the Gallery 22 with a jar of permanent makers next to it so people can highlight the shapes they see in her tiles.
“Since it’s glass, Sharpie makers wipe off,” she said.
Cox has been hooked on enameling ever since high school, where she got her start. She said she enjoyed it so much she went to a certain community college just so she could take classes from an instructor who taught enameling.
Cox noted she comes from a hands-on, creative family. She said her grandma was a painter, and her dad was a shop teacher.
“It has always been a part of me,” she said.