Cutting, ripping and gluing, I add color, gesture and sometimes ruin as I harvest photos, fabric, old paintings and ephemera for hue, texture, and value.  I make drawing and mark-making part of the sticky mix, too. Staying receptive to past associations as well as aesthetic and emotional cues and clues in the source material guides me to an inherent subject and composition. The process is one I hope viewers experience as they search and discover their own meaning.

 

I have been making pictures with words and visual mediums for as long as I  can remember. Connecting and reflecting in these ways helped me adapt to frequent moves in this country and growing up abroad. This has lead to my work in documentary film productions and public television programming. My writing for publications include The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Medium.

Building on this background in recent years has lead to communications and non-profit development work in Haiti, for a pilot project introducing 3D printed prosthetics to amputees, and to a local soup kitchen where I produce a podcast. Within this diverse portfolio, my lifelong engagement with art begun with the hours spent painting watercolors with my grandmother. My art is expanding into collage and mixed media and to a first-time focus on exhibition and creative community building.  From that, I have had endured many activities which lead to her 2016 artist residency and teaching opportunity at Holly House/Hypatia in the Woods in Washington State.

Education 

B.A. , English Literature, SUNY Purchase

M.A. English Literature, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Art Education 

Studied under: 

  • Sharon Pitts 
  • John Atura
  • Gary Godbee
  • Julian Tejada
  • Janet Boltax 
  • Suzanne Kammin Baron

Shows 

  • The Figure, Montclair Art Museum/Life Studio at Montclair Public Library, Fall 2016
  • Brookdale Artists Show, Fall 2016
  • Yard School of Art, Montclair Art Museum, 2014
  • Riker Park Life Drawing Artists, 2012

Feel free to visit Elinor’s website: esmeekspictures.com  

 

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