the SOCIETY OF LAYERISTS in MULTI-MEDIA






















































the SLMM
premise
The Society of Layerists in Multi–Media (SLMM) is a network for artists who express a holistic perspective in any style or medium. Layering is not a label for a specific technique, such as collage. It is a way to think about creating art as a synthesis of ideas from many sources: the sciences, philosophy, metaphysics, experience, and imagination. The layers in Layered art are the references and meaning that the artist brings to the work rather than the materials used to create it. As a society, we are focused on the intentions of the artist.
Layering is an evanescent metaphor that grows like moss from living and learning. Often there is a sense of something "other" than the visible in Layered art. The kinship among Layerists is their openness to inspiration from all aspects of their lives and their shared perception of an underlying connectedness to everything.
— Mary Carroll Nelson,
SLMM founder
resources
Calendar of Events
View the SLMM Calendar here to see upcoming events and opportunities to connect, like our popular Open Studios.
Newsletters
Check out the most recent Fall 2024 Newsletter, Vol. 119.
You can view the newsletter archives here.
web gallery project
(above) January Web Gallery exhibit
click here to view the web gallery page
latest news
2025 SLMM Conference
Hays, KS
September 16, 17, 18, 19, 2025
SLMM Conference is BACK! Don't miss out on the exciting workshops, tours, dinners, gatherings and SLMM National Exhibit, reception and banquet at the Hays Arts Council.
REGISTER ONLINE BY JULY 1ST. Link to Registration form
What SLMM Means to Me
"While I was writing my senior honors paper (at Bryn Mawr) on the relation between the holy and the secular, I struggled with the limitations of words as a way of shaping my understanding of existence...I realized that visual images could provide a very direct means of exploring the kinds of metaphysical questions that interest me...Through my work I express my intuitions about the relationships of self to world, spirit to matter, change to order, eternity to time.
Each new work contains a metaphor for the multiple shapes of reality. My whole way of working reflects this search for the reality beyond appearances. The creative process itself contains many layers of meaning which are incorporated in the work...In a visual image the idea is incarnate in matter, so the choice of technical process profoundly affects the final statement.
Layering as a conceptual basis for composition should be reflected in its material counterpart, the physical media and techniques used to give it concrete form. Maintaining this direct relation between the shape of the idea and the means of expression produces a corresponding integrity in the visual image..."
— Ruth Meredith newsletter archives
SLMM is a 501(c)3 non–profit organization founded in May 1982 in the state of New Mexico.