A different kind of mash-up

Some people, however, gravitated toward the back of the bar for the other featured event of the show: an artist wrapping silver wire in intricate patterns to make jewelry while the band played.

“When you have two forces bouncing off each other, it transforms the show,’’ said the artist, Matthew Dispagna.

Jam bands have long invited visual artists to create during concerts. But these days a growing number of bands in a broad range of genres - and sometimes even DJs - are incorporating live artmaking into their shows. In everything from indie rock to dance music, artists are joining musicians onstage to paint, sculpt, make jewelry, and dance for the audience.

The Indobox has incorporated live artmaking into its shows at least 20 times in its three years as a band. “We’re doing live art [as musicians], so why not have someone else do it in another medium?’’ said Stephen Learson, who plays bass, keyboards, and sings for the band.

Mike Carter, singer and guitarist for the Indobox, said the collaboration is energizing and could open fans’ eyes to a broader range of art forms. “It could turn people onto something they never knew about before,’’ he said.

Alida Frey, a recent graduate of Boston University, painted onstage last month at a concert by the techno-jam duo Eoto at Harpers Ferry. Much of the crowd was mesmerized as her brush stroked the blank canvas painting a landscape to the tempo of the music. “There are some very enthusiastic people by the end of the show,’’ Frey said.

Frey, like other artists, typically sells or auctions her work after the concerts. In fact, a live painting she did for Boston jam band Mondo Gecko was purchased by Luke Stratton, the band’s singer and guitarist. It hangs over his computer in his living room.

Joshua Oliveira, 32, who also has painted for Mondo Gecko, has spent five years painting in a style partially inspired by cubism in front of concert audiences. “It [the art] sort of becomes an extra instrument in their creative process,’’ he said.

Oliveira said he typically has no idea what he’s going to paint before he steps onstage. In August he displayed his lack of premeditation at a charity concert for Greg Reynolds, who lost an arm in a motorcycle accident. Reynolds painted the first stroke on his blank canvas, and Oliveira used it as a jumping-off point for his painting. While some art takes a great deal of planning, Oliveira said, he can paint fluidly onstage by using “the energy of the crowd, the vibes of the music, and the pressure of being under the spotlight.’’

An audience, loud music, and spotlights can be distracting, said Kevin Donahue, who paints under the name KDonz. He has painted to music in a Pearl Street art gallery and at RISE, an after-hours electronic music club. But he said live music inspires him to paint in different ways. The flashing colored lights and party atmosphere at RISE resulted in paintings that are “very twisted and out of control,’’ he said, while painting to punk rock encourages him to draw and paint faster.

Although the intensity of an audience can fuel the creativity of artists, it can lead some audience members to be less than cordial. Oliveira recalls a time a fan insisted he painted her face. Donahue has also had run-ins with audience members who have tried to grab a brush and join him painting the canvas. “You’ve got to stop what you’re doing and jump in front of the canvas like a bodyguard,’’ he said.

At the end of the day, artists like Dispagna believe the spontaneity of the music and art lead everyone in the room to new and interesting places. “Imagine you’re on a road trip,’’ he said. “You get distracted and you go down a random road, and that’s where you find the best things.’’