April Toss n Tell – Elizabeth Marruffo

Feltwest is very pleased to announce an Artist Talk by Elizabeth Marruffo

Needle Felting Artist

Elizabeth is going to tell us all about her graphic novel project using needle felted creatures and characters to create the story.

“I am using needle felting to sculpt all the characters in my retelling of the Wind in the Willows story. I am also using recycled materials and polymer clay for other props. I am sculpting around 30 poseable anthropomorphic figures, arranging scenes and then taking photos of them. I then alter these photos digitally on my ipad using a program called Clip Studio. Finally I arrange the photos in a sequential way to create comic pages and add speech bubbles and text . The final book will be around 250-300 pages and I hope to be finished in around 2 years.”

Elizabeth Marruffo is from the small border town of Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico. In her painting practice, Marruffo engages with ideas of self-representation along with themes of collective grief, loss and love. Her paintings appear as dreamlike images where the earthly and the otherworldly co-exist. With an increasing interest in folkloric traditions, she uses the techniques of a traditional painting practice and creates works that have a distinctive and contemporary voice.

In her work with children’s community groups she uses poetic and gentle techniques in ways that encourage a child’s ability to develop their own creativity and sense of self.

Elizabeth currently lives and works in Perth, Western Australia. She is also the director of Milktooth Arts Space, where she develops and runs children art classes and adults art workshops. She is a sessional lecturer in painting at Edith Cowan University, has been a finalist in numerous national painting awards including The Portia Geach Memorial Prize and is represented in various collections.