Marfa show
I am unabashedly an artist who is devoted to exploring the ‘Eternal Worlds’ of the Imagination. The language of metaphor, symbol and dream aid in accessing these worlds.
And in this deep exploration comes self- revelation and even visionary possibilities.
This latest body of work has taken the form of largely photo-based paintings. The photographs are scanned from glass plate negatives dating from the turn of the century and printed on tyvec. The plates were given to me by a friend who insisted they were meant for me. She found them in the attic of a newly acquired stately home in Houston, Tx. It was not until her sudden death , a year later, that I could see the possibilities of her offering.
Re-imagining the subjects of these vintage glass negatives (mostly children) by adding wings, moons, animal allies, stone circles, birds and amphibians, became a meditation on death and resurrection. The collaboration of the painting and evocative photographs became a poignant process of bridging life and death.
Some have been printed on old Chinese Scrolls, suggesting the fragility of life and it’s transient nature. A few paintings, altered photographs in their original bubble glass and frames, and a nun’s rough linen nightgown, re-animated with images and objects of magic and healing are included.
Many stories are suggested here with no beginning and no end. Instead they hint at a relationship to a Visionary World and the realms between.
Artist’s Statement
My paintings emerge from a place where contradictions are allowed, paradox reigns and reason is abandoned. My search is for the inherent radiance in all things… the extraordinary in the ordinary.
As the process of painting parallels the movement of psyche, it helps me to understand the world as a deeper reality. The rich soul experiences of my life become tangible.
Each painting is a small acknowledgment of the inner life that can perhaps reveal its own share of soul, and that share of soul may connect to someone else’s share of soul. Then perhaps beauty may be granted.
-Alexandra Eldridge