Mixed Media Artist at Downtown Vault Gallery

Mixed media artist Jeffrey Falk has been a fixture of the Downtown Phoenix arts community since 1984. Although he concedes there wasn’t much of an art scene here at that time, he was one of the pioneers, believing that arts and culture are “important in the life and development of a city.”

Falk’s work will be on exhibit at the Downtown Phoenix campus Library’s Vault Gallery through August 9. His work also can be found in both private and public collections, including the Sky Harbor Airport Art Collection, the Tucson Museum of Art and the Mesa Contemporary Arts/Mesa Arts Center.

Falk draws upon collage, construction, found objects, created objects, paint, assemblage and “whatever is at hand to make art.”

“Art is very important to me, making it and seeing the art of other artists in museums and public places,” he writes.

Falk’s art begins in his subconscious, or in other words, he often doesn’t have a clear idea for his art before he begins making it.

“I just begin,” he writes. “At the risk of sounding cliché, I tend to let the materials I use guide me in a direction. Of course, images from my head begin to come to the surface and it all becomes a collaboration of materials and mind.”

Falk took art classes at Arizona State University in 1980 and at Phoenix College and Glendale Community College, while drawing on “life experience” for his work.

“I try to get as close to the personal story without revealing too much,” he explains of his technique. “I like an air of mystery to the work. I like the work to have meaning, but if you don’t understand what the meaning is as I intended it, nevertheless, if it speaks to you, that’s terrific.

“Picasso said something like, once a piece of art is done, it mocks the maker, because it doesn’t need them anymore,” he says. “It has a life of its own.”

Falk can be reached at falk.jeff@cox.net