Kristen Dahms drinks tea but works in coffee.
She’s not a barista. The Virginia Beach resident is a mixed media artist who creates behind the mantra “Believing is Seeing.” Drips of coffee, and sometimes grounds, stain the paper where her whimsical designs come to life.
Dahms will exhibit her collections Oct. 5-6 at An Occasion for the Arts (AOFTA), one of the premier arts and music festivals on the East Coast.
Dance and musical performances, in addition to more than 150 visual artists, will turn out over the two days in Williamsburg’s Merchants Square from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Art-focused from the minute she could hold a crayon in her hand, Dahms always planned to grow up to be an artist. The Fairfax, Virginia, native maxed out on every art class in high school before attending Savannah College of Art and Design. She liked drawing best because of its potential.
“You can do anything with a pencil or a pen,” she said. “There are no limitations. You can make any world up.”
A college project that today hangs in her parents’ dining room called for using 20 materials. The play of elements to create an abstract lady in the woods included the coffee she used to stain the paper, her initial inspiration to specialize in mixed media.
Dahms starts by drawing the design in her head on high-quality watercolor paper using a graphite pencil. She creates a texture and pattern foundation by applying small pieces of paper to the watercolor paper.
Then comes the coffee, applied with a soppy brush to make splatters and drips. She sprinkles a few instant grounds onto the wet spots, which dissolve like salt to create a favorable texture. When dry, that creates her foundation layer, which sparks the painting process.
Dahms then creates a wonderfully vibrant, exquisitely detailed watercolor painting on top.
Her playful, magical collection includes originals, prints, journal covers and greeting cards.
The coffee isn’t obvious as it blends in so seamlessly with the design, adding a thickness atypical of watercolor. Her pieces are alive. Nature makes music.
“Hummingbird wings make noise,” she said. “I’m a Virginia girl. I used to go wander in the woods and play, and it’s just like an endless fantasy. I love living in the ‘Why not?’”
Of late, Dahms has delved into her love of fantasy by drawing dragons, each with a unique story.
“I love challenging how we view the world,” she said. “We forget as people to look at the stars, to look up between the treetops, to look at a bug’s eye view, a bird’s eye view. I love painting with a different perspective.”
Dahms is not a collage artist. She favors color, patterns and paper, the foundation of every piece.
“Most people never see the paper,” she said.
Travel energizes Dahms, including trips to Iceland, Scotland, Germany and Costa Rica. She exhibits at roughly 20 shows a year and won her first medal in the acclaimed Mystic Outdoor Art Festival in Connecticut.
Two years after that, she took Best in Show at a Manteo event.
In addition to An Occasion for the Arts, she will exhibit locally at Stockley Gardens in Norfolk on Oct. 19-20 and at The Bodacious Bazaar in Hampton on Nov. 8-10.
Visit aofta.org for more information on An Occasion for the Arts, including artists, hours and schedule of performances.
