“My illustrations are personal snapshots of things I’ve seen” is how this amazing Dutch mixed media artist describes her incredible works of art on her website. She’s Natalie Ciccoricco, who was born and brought up in the Netherlands and is now based in California, USA.
Ciccoricco, from her very childhood, was interested in art. So, it wasn’t surprising that she thought of pursuing her passion by enrolling in Utrecht University, the Netherlands from where she earned her Masters of Art. It was after moving to the US in 2012 that she started experimenting with mixed media collages and illustrations inspired by her surroundings.
Sample Ciccoricco’s ‘Nesting’ series that features stitching lengthy, varicolored rows around found twigs, juxtaposing the organic forms of nature with embroideries rendered meticulously, on white handmade paper with unfinished edges. The twig appears to be suspended by precisely-laid soft-colored embroidery threads. This is what lends artistic charm to this creation.
According to Ciccoricco, her mixed-media collages are all original, analog works which consist of found images and embroidery threads of varied colors. She artistically blends and fuses these threads with the images or weaves around twigs. It’s these woven narratives on paper that lend uniqueness to her works. And she loves to experiment with different materials, and even re-use old images and paper.
Ciccoricco’s original approach is what infuses freshness to these materials, thereby enriching her creations. No wonder her works are so stimulating to look at. Her inspiration is derived not only from nature, arts, and literature but also from what she sees while traveling and dreaming while asleep.
Ciccoricco’s works have become part of juried shows at several renowned galleries, such as the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles, STUDIO Gallery in San Francisco and Yosemite National Park Museum Gallery, California.
So good are Ciccoricco’s artworks that within a span of three years, she started participating in exhibitions, starting in 2015. In 2019, she held a solo show ‘Down the Color Hole Zukowski Collective – Pacifica’. A year before that she displayed her works in STUDIO Gallery, San Francisco, and many more before that.
Natalie Ciccoricco