Damasse Toxique

Relief work is how Stephen began creating fine art pieces. The techniques used in these pieces blend American craft techniques like quilting and embroidery, with fashion fabrics, and three dimensional mounting techniques. Each of these pieces starts with a background that is constructed out of fabric and mounted to an art board. The backgrounds consist of diffe ent types of fabrics that are often manipulated, painted or dyed. Once the fabric is complete, it is stretched like a canvas and attached to the backboard. The second layer of the relief works is the upper image. These are designed separately and embroidered using fashion fabrics from Chanel, Hermés, Oscar De La Renta, and more. Once the embroidery for the upper image is fabricated, raised 3D mounts are created using laser-cut pieces of wood. Each piece is then mounted onto the background using stainless steel standoffs in varying heights. The upper image fabric pieces are then affix to the mounts, creating a breathtaking, mosai