The work by artist Erika Iris Simmons is a collection of faces and figures that grow out of recycled materials, reconfigured musical notes, and the negative space that results from these shapes. Simmons started out as a face-painter at Universal Studios and then went on to study makeup design. She says, “I became fascinated with books about perception and cognition. I think creating these optical illusions everyday [with makeup] made me curious about how our minds perceive shadows, and how we put together the image of the world around us.”
For these pieces that she calls Paperworks, Simmons meticulously cuts out musical notes and pastes them back together in stunning portraits, patterns, and shapes in her attempt to “visualize the transcendence felt in beautiful music.” I absolutely love how the sheet music comes alive as the figures move, sway, and rise off the pages.
