Alone, Together
Alone, Together : 2019
Recently, due to the shelter in place orders, I am considering my own internal dialog of nature as a metaphor for the juxtaposition of where we find ourselves both alone and together. Clouds occupy the same sky and a single cloud is both one and many. Also included are galaxies, the night sky and islands, which illustrate the separateness we feel during this great pause but can also be seen through the lens of alone, together. In addition, I wanted these paintings to be small and intimate to reflect the spaces we are confined to during this time. Our homes are both holding us in but another perspective is we are gaining space from self-reflection, each other and the immediate world around us allowing a stronger connection to a larger picture of unity.
xo - Elissa
30 Daily Paintings : September 2020
September has me feeling like I need some repeatable practices. These tiny worlds are pocket sized and transport you to a new landscape, for a moment or two at least. Small enough to sit on your desktop or on a wall. A magic portal that contains a vast landscape in a precious package.
Gathering Migration
This series was a slow progression of paintings that came together over time to form a cohesive group with color and repetitive pattern. I used an intuitive painting method in this series and drew on the color schemes and patterns from the Re-Constructing series to insinuate time passing, with the stripes and allude to a crossing over of day into night and vice versa. While these go in no particular order, they represent more of the landscape I currently view and collect in my day to day life here in Gilroy, CA. We see many migrating and stable bird populations along our levee preserve on the Uvas Creek trail that is near to our home. I am very interested in how our patterns of movement over land mimic those of birds moving through air.
Re-Constructing Landscapes
My 30 foot landscape documenting my personal memories of landscape begins with my first attachment to the land, a butte on my grandparents ranch in western South Dakota. Traveling through the landscapes that embedded themselves in my personal landscape along the way in my life’s journey thus far and ending with my current home in California where I connected with the ocean-scape in Big Sur during our first December in CA. The paintings also travel through the sunrise, daytime, a little storm and ending with sunset and night. Each painting measures 36 x 48 inches created using watercolor and collage on wood panel.
Past works on canvas
I worked primarily on canvas from 2008-2012 before returning to paper.
college - collages
works from my senior independent-study seminar - summer 2005
