Who: Tiffini Elektra X
Medium: Mixed media, collage and some assemblage.
Her story: A few years ago, the 30-something Greeley resident began to divert from her work with autistic children to art.
Little by little, the search for old books and paper and findings and paint overtook her life. She still works with kids a bit, but now her full-time focus is on making art, laboring in a studio on a high floor in her home that she says is “Marie Antoinette meets Dracula.”
She acquires old images, typically snapping up old photos and vintage wrapping paper, and as many old, illustrated books as she can find. (Because she feels guilty about tearing apart books, she typically picks waterlogged and damaged volumes that others don’t appreciate.)
She clips images she likes and makes collages that are then assembled into light boxes and jewelry, such as rings and pendants made from antique opticians’ lenses.
X is an egalitarian artist. A few years back, she was preparing for a big show of her high-end light boxes and started to worry that people who visited the show would be frustrated if they couldn’t afford one of her pieces. So she bought a standing vending machine – the kind that spits out baseball cards and finger puppets encased in plastic balls in restaurant lobbies – and filled it with little pieces of art, like lapel buttons and simple pendants, that her visitors could buy for a buck.
Her most recent achievement was being included in a collaborative project by 13 mixed-media artists. The resulting book, “In This House: A Collection of Altered Art Imagery and Collage Techniques,” ($25, Quarry Books) is due July 1. “I am really excited to be part of it,” she says.
Philosophy: “I don’t like to explain my work that much. I like to leave it open for people to pick what they want to get out of it. Because I use recycled images, a lot of different age groups gravitate to one thing or another. It’s really fun.”
Price range: From $1 for a lapel button, to $400 for an illuminated light box.
Where to find her work: Online at, on the shelves at The Artists’ Nook and The Cupboard in Fort Collins, and in a gumball-style vending machine at Margie’s Java Joint in Greeley.
