Video Courtesy of TED.

Art is everywhere. Isn’t that the most tired cliché known to man? It’s almost as staid as “everything is art.”

But for Alexa Meade, everything really is art. The Vassar College alum recreates 3D images on a 2D surface, not by painting what she sees, but by drenching the scene in paint — then photographing it. In other words, she takes a three-dimensional form, such as a person sitting on a chair, applies paint to them both, then preserves the moment on camera. If that’s not an innovative take on the term “mixed media,” then it’s hard to know what is.

Meade’s work has been featured at The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and The Saatchi Gallery in London, among others. In this TED Talk from Edinburgh, Scotland, she dishes on her approach to her work, how to think of every moment of life as part of a canvas, and a unique project involving people, paint and milk.

Check out the video above and tell us what you think in the comments below!

Photo courtesy of: James Duncan Davidson/TED.