Artist Statement
I create sculpture, drawings, prints, and paintings. The process of traveling between two and three dimensions, weaving the flat with the dimensional, separately or simultaneously, in the same piece or in different pieces, energizes my studio and propels me forward. I work on several bodies of work at once, and often different media at once, and each informs the others. The subject of these range from the personal to referencing my work experience on a locked psychiatric ward and the use of medical coding to tell a story.
Materials speak to me. I use a wide range from paint and graphite to cement, hydrocal, and, lately, Aqua Resin. Process excites me, whether it be making thousands of repetitive marks or precise mold making and casting. My work is often of a smaller scale, but when girth and expanse is necessary I use increments to make the whole. I choose a more immediate media if my story has an urgency to it. An involved process often allows me room to escape from the story and get technical in the studio, providing relief to the emotional journey. Often I work to simplify my images, paring down elements to their bare essentials. Other times, I believe "more is more" and use multitudes of strokes, dots, and lines for structure, texture, or contour. Whatever my method, each piece begins as a narrative in my own mind, and finishes more abstractly, leaving room for the viewer to enter.
I invite you to follow my most recent work, in process, on my Instagram site @elbstudio.
I invite you to follow my most recent work, in process, on my Instagram site @elbstudio.