When Daisies Talk 21x17
collage

Natural Landscape 26x20
collage

Plea To The Bleeding Sky 21x15
collage

Fertile Ground 10x10
acrylic/collage

Leaning Into Blue 10x10
acrylic/collage

Stab Stitch Journal
With Tie And Pocket

DJ Gaskin has explored watercolor, oil, photography and more, and now primarily focuses on acrylic and mixed-media collage and book arts.  Drawing on her love of the wild, nature is frequently a theme in her work. “I look at elements of nature in terms of the correlations to human nature,” she says. “Integrating pieces of the earth or other natural representations and images into my art is similar to how I use nature metaphors in my poems, as symbols for the man-made elements of life that draw on our natural instincts or seem to  parallel the behaviors among wildlife.”  

Her fascination with texture and layers drives much of DJ’s work. Her art has been called both elegant and earthy, as well as adventurous. She loves to experiment, exploring how different papers react to different mediums. And, like any collage artist, she's a collector of things. Her work not only features various handmade and fine decorative or painted papers, but also 'found' papers -- an old letter, foreign text from an antique book, old maps and sheet music -- and even three-dimensional objects. DJ’s passion for paper is also demonstrated in her handmade journals, artist books and other, experimental, book arts.

In addition to the Springfield Art Guild, DJ is a member of the National Collage Society, Del Ray Artisans in Alexandria, and The Art League, housed in The Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria.