Elaine Green -"New Charcoal Drawings"

October 10, 2008 - November 8, 2008

Opening Reception: Friday, October 10, 2008 from 5-8 pm.

This show is sponsored by R. G. Nelson A.I.A. Architects.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

Art is my way of looking at the world and “re-presenting” it in such a manner to call the viewer’s attention to something that may not be otherwise apparent.  All of my work involves “realistic” ordinary objects—the human figure, a landscape, a house, machinery, a cow—but through various techniques of framing, shading, juxtaposition, blurring of boundaries, and the monochromatic character of the charcoal medium itself, the subject matter becomes at once both familiar and unfamiliar, recognizable, but also eerily “uncanny.”  My artistic process—hand-rubbing the charcoal into the paper, then lifting it off with erasers—means having to spend a great deal of time studying the images as they emerge from the darkness, during which interesting subtleties and tensions reveal themselves.  Thus, a cow becomes fleshy and dimensional rather than an unassuming fixture on an idyllic landscape.  Similarly, it is jarring to see large swatches of black in a landscape, whether it occurs naturally in the case of swamp grass in Florida, or unnaturally in burned crop stubble on the Palouse.  Steam plant equipment (ducts, valves, piping) is clothed in strange shrouds and cowls that are functional (in an effort to control the tremendous pressures and heat contained within), yet which make the machinery virtually unrecognizable, almost organic.

- Elaine Green