When Miriam Voros was growing up in Germany and her parents would plan their family vacations, she used to inquire, “Will there be ocean?”  She had no inkling that the love she had for the waves and briny sea that captured her heart would bring her all the way to Cape Cod. A creative and inquisitive child, Voros always had drawing and painting supplies in hand, which led her to pursue a graphic design apprenticeship where she worked with publishing and marketing agencies, combining her creativity with technology skills.

Growing up near the Alps, Voros first arrived on the Cape by way of Boston as an au pair for a family who visited Wychmere Beach Club in Harwich one summer, and as fate would have it, she met the man who would later become her husband on that trip. After two years of logging hundreds of air miles flying back and forth to visit each other and cement their summer romance, Voros and her native Cape Cod beau married and put down roots on the sandy peninsula that she had also fallen in love with.

 In order to keep herself involved in a creative community and surrounded by do-it-yourself projects, Voros juggled a role as a support specialist at Michael’s Craft Store along with her work as a freelance graphic designer. She recalls with a giggle, “I was in contact with so many art supplies at Michael’s and it was inspiring to see all the possibilities there. They even had classes I could take and I used to tell them, ‘You can just keep my paycheck!’”

 It was at this time that she began to consider a lane change, “As a graphic designer you work with your clients on their vision, applying your technical and graphic knowledge to their project, but I realized that I’ve always been a creative person and maybe it was time for me to create my own art and feel that inspiration for myself,” she recalls. 

She began painting with acrylics but was soon inspired to experiment with acrylic pouring, a technique that involves pouring the medium directly onto a canvas. Voros immersed herself in learning the technique and found that she was fascinated not only with the creativity the style provided, but also the technical aspect of it. It has been a fair amount of trial and error to hone her craft and for a self-proclaimed perfectionist, the unpredictability of the medium is something she is always practicing to control. “Sometimes things happen and then you have to try to let it go and not think too much. It’s hard to explain, but for me, my art is all based on how I feel.”

In a nod to her love of the ocean, she mixes sea water from local beaches with her paint, evoking special meaning for those who are fortunate enough to have one of her unique pieces. In her studio, she has bottles of water from various Cape beaches, but for some commissioned works, she’s been gifted water from as far as Malaga, Spain. She tilts the canvas, pouring and measuring the paint, using everything from gravity, a palette knife, a straw and even a cake spinner to achieve her designs. One day while working, she realized she could create something from the excess, unused paint. She explains, “I have always been conscious of my environment. Maybe that comes with my German heritage;we recycle everything. But I knew I wanted to do something with the leftover paint, so I make jewelry out of that.”

With a mind/body/soul connection that is difficult to put into words, Voros approaches her art based on feeling. “I get inspired by the beauty of where we live and the peaceful blue color of the ocean. When I look at paintings or pictures, the color and composition just speaks to me and makes me so happy—this is what I try to achieve with my own art. I try to choose the colors I use based on what I’m feeling at the moment,” she shares. 

Miriam Voros shows her artwork and jewelry locally at ArtNova Gallery, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Love Live Local store, and Green Road Refill. You can follow her on Instagram @MVArtistri and her website, mvartistri.com.