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Margaret Storms

Visitors to South Wedge resident Margaret Storm’s display in the Hungerford Building on First Friday are treated to posters, sticker, pins and many other items decked out in a riot of colors with a visceral, 3-D effect, and dedicated to Internet stars chosen with a wry sense of pop culture. It’s collage art for the modern Internet age, or as Storms refers to it, Psychadelic Internet Pop Art. Whether you’re an unapologetic fan of Britney Spears or a dedicated hate-watcher of Guy Fieri’s special brand of cooking tourism, among others, there’s a fun pin, sticker or print you can pick up to showcase it.

With a background in fine arts, print-making and art history through her degree from Alfred University, Storm’s work, lighthearted though it is, is informed by the religious art of both Western and Eastern culture. Storms use of patterns to create depth of space draws from Indian art and her casting of Britney Spears as the expression of the ideal female form comes from Greek Classical culture. The work plays with the idea of the Internet’s contribution to our tendency to raise certain figures—be they Grumpy Cat or the X-Files’ Mulder and Scully–to a reverential status. And despite this thematic undercurrent, Storms is still working to make you smile.

“My ultimate goal is to make someone crack up. The art world can encourage artists to revel in misery, but there’s a lot to be drawn from reveling in your personal joy,” said Storms. “People should like what they like without feeling bad about it—it’s hard to make yourself happy, any chance you have to enjoy some time on this planet, you should take advantage.”

And that art can come in most any form you like. Storms explains, “The digital image on the computer screen is the art—what it’s on doesn’t necessarily matter to me. I put it on things mainly for accessibility and I really just want to get the art into people’s hands.”

Stormy Made art can be found and printed on to many different usable forms through Redbubble.com/stormymade. She also is a regular at First Friday at the Hungerford Building through this coming May, sells stickers and prints at Little Button Craft & Press (658 South Ave.) buttons at Second Chic Boutique (739 South Clinton Ave.) and stickers at Record Archive (33 Rockwood St.). Follow Storms on Instagram (@ stormymade) and Facebook (facebook.com/stormymadestormymade) or check out her upcoming show at Hedonist Chocolates (674 South Ave.) this December.