About the Artist

Baye Hunter is a mixed-media artist who has a passion for documenting her life through collage, photography, and watercolours. She resides on Toronto Island across the bay from downtown Toronto. She combines her love of creating works of art with her career is as an ESL teacher and web designer.

Baye has spent much time since her teens on her bicycle travelling around the city of Toronto, or on extended bicycle trips in far away places such as Europe, Asia and Western Canada. A passion for two-wheeled vehicles endures to this day and can be seen in much of her work. Baye has studied art at OCAD, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the Haliburton School for the Arts as well as privately with several artists. She has always had an interest in combining her love of photography and the visual imagery of her surroundings, with collage and painting; she explores in all facets of her work. As an ESL teacher and having travelled in many countries she has experienced the richness and diversity of the varied world cultures, bringing an array of cultural experiences to her art work  

PROCESS


Paper Collages


“I keep a collection of a variety of papers to work with.” The papers come from magazines, books, stationery stores and the recycling bin. Some of the papers are made by the artist, stamping different patterns onto tissue paper or doing colour washes over them. To create each mixed media collage the artist begins with a drawing of the image. She selects paper, based on the theme and colour range she would like to use. She selects pre-printed papers to combine with the newly made ones and collages these onto the backing. She also looks for a diversity of shapes, patterns and sizes. Then she meticulously cuts or tears the paper into specific shapes applying each one to the surface of the drawing until the image is complete.  She softens the patterns of the papers with a wash of paint.