Local Artist of the Week

The work of Tiffany Lippincott is the kind that appears purely abstract at first glance, with its brilliantly colored oils and repeated sections of pattern intermingling on canvas.

Once the eyes focus on the paintings, though, it becomes clear that the hard lines, hidden by leaves and swirls under layers of fabric and paint, belong to chairs and tables and that Lippincott has an uncanny ability to find the subtle, delicate beauty in the most ordinary pieces of furniture.

Art imitates life in her studio apartment, which is strewn with bolts of fabric and piles of unfolded laundry occupying multiple chairs. Her playful, feminine, colorful art on the walls overshadows any homey clutter.

"I seem to pick up every single color and sometimes it feels like too much," Lippincott said. "That's why I started using fabric, kind of to help me focus my color scheme and tie it all together."

Lippincott can get lost in her favorite patterns, French curves that fold in on themselves, in a way that she said is comparable to the mesmerizing effects of design in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper."

In her current technique Lippincott, breaks down fabric from its original state with color and distress so that only part of the original patterning still shows for her to build the painting around, though she is steadily moving toward creating her own fabrics to work with.

In college, Lippincott had a double focus since she couldn't pick between her two passions: painting and photography. Through a lot of experimental technique, her painting and love of patterned fabric bled into her process in the dark room through selective developing, liquid light, painting, use of transparencies and collaging.

Her artist boyfriend, Ben Timpson, relocated to Charleston to be closer to his publisher. Lipppincott said she saw living somewhere with such a famous arts community outside of Missouri, where she grew up and went to college, as a great personal opportunity, and moved as well.

Art Showing: Canvas Salon, 436 King St.

Web site/Contact: Tiffanylippincott.com, tiffany_lippincott@yahoo.com.

Career: Artist, professional framer, photographer for Bent Studio.

Price Range: $600 and under.