ARTIST STATEMENT
I think about my mother, who is 100 years old, and how she experiences time at this stage of her life. She cannot identify my sister and me in photos of us as children. She only knows us as we appear now, as though we emerged from her womb as fully formed adults with gray hair. She cannot remember what she had for lunch immediately after finishing her meal. She remembers the faces of people she sees regularly, but has forgotten her nieces and nephews who visit her sporadically. I brace myself for a day when she may forget my name. My mother lived with me periodically during the pandemic. Through her, I witnessed the effects of emotional and physical loneliness. The needs of the body—both the basics of bodily functions and spiritual and emotional yearnings—are satisfied largely through physical proximity to others, touch, and intimacy.
The titles for many portraits of my mother come from the biblical text Song of Songs. This poetry is both explicitly sensual and metaphorically spiritual, describing the intensity of the relationship between lovers. Although there is a societal disconnect between the language of sexual longing and the physicality of an elderly woman, I choose to title works about my mother from this text to convey the truth that love and desire, as well as the need for human contact and touch, are universal and not limited by age.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ellen Holtzblatt a Chicago-based artist, explores the profound connections between the physical and spiritual world – the memories of the body that reside in the soul. Landscape becomes an allegory for psyche and emotion, evolution and decay. Through her portrait and landscape paintings and drawings, she seeks to embody the power and vulnerability of mind and body, and the ever-present passage of time. Holtzblatt exhibits her work internationally and nationally. Recent one person exhibits include Miller Art Museum, St. Xavier University, Chicago Cultural Center, Josef Glimer Gallery, Fermilab Gallery, and Robert F. DeCaprio Art Gallery. Recent group shows include Freeport Art Museum, Jerusalem Biennale, Evanston Art Center, Museum of Biblical Art, Spertus Institute, Rockford Art Museum, Chicago Artist’s Coalition, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Inselgalerie in Berlin, Yeshiva University Museum, and Center for Book Arts. Holtzblatt has been awarded artist residencies in the U.S. and Iceland including Ragdale Foundation, and was a 2019/2020 artist resident with the Chicago Artists Coalition, where she exhibited in two-person and group exhibitions. Holtzblatt’s work is held in numerous public and private collections, and she has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council and City of Chicago. Holtzblatt earned degrees in Visual Art and Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an M.Ed. from UIC.
© Ellen Holtzblatt