Dorris Vooijs’ art defies categorization. A mixture of painting, collage making, and illustrating, as well as textile art and digital art – it relies on a process of layering. It also requires patience. “I like to see what happens when you cross digital stuff and layer that with traditional methods,” writes Vooijs on her website. “Building up and peeling pieces away or scratching my way back to the surface, until I feel that it might be time to step back and leave it alone.”
Her creative experimentation includes both traditional and untraditional techniques. Markers, pencils, ink, and acrylic, oil, mix with spray paint, Tipp-Ex, and embroidery, with the aid of digital helpers like Photoshop, and Wacom Intuos tablet. But surprisingly, the result isn’t messy, but rather, nostalgic, leaning on romantic.
Each piece begins with an image found on the internet, in magazines, or thrift shops. Often, these images become the physical basis for her new work. Using digital sketches, prints, markers, spray paint, thread, and ink, Vooijs transforms these images so that they reflect her life and her aesthetics.
“Some pieces took so long I almost gave up,” Vooijs remarked once in an interview with Jung Katz. “Actually, I did repaint a lot of my work… sometimes it’s just the quickest fix and besides that, it’s budget-friendly. I also often work on a couple of pieces simultaneously.”
