ARTIST STATEMENT
My current work explores the possibility of making visual sense through a process that, though sometimes complex, turns out to be a kind of managed serendipity.
I create large abstracts, worked flat. I start with acrylic paint, begin with colors in different areas, and manipulate the canvas until I find what works. The beginning is almost arbitrary, but what emerges is usually surprising.
I combine paint with a variety of textures—sometimes pouring medium, sometimes varnish, sometimes gels—to create surfaces that I embellish, remove, scrape, splatter or puddle.
Walking around the canvas as I work, I discover the perspective that best suits the piece.
Whether vertical, horizontal or angled, there is a struggle between disarray and harmony, comfort and discomfort that I try to resolve in each piece, a process that can be completed through a minute detail or disparate dash of color.
I try to keep the viewer simultaneously engaged by the complexities of the work and soothed by the empty spaces in between.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elyse Martin attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and earned a BFA in painting from Washington University in St. Louis. Her regional and national award -winning work is featured in private collections, corporate offices and residential building lobbies. Inspired by weekly visits to the Art Institute, Elyse’s drive to create began early in childhood when she filled countless sketchbooks and canvasses.
Martin taught art in Chicago’s inner city where she inspired students and parents to transform blank space into public art. As a consultant for Crayola, Martin developed lesson plans used by student artists across the country.
Elyse Martin’s current work uses acrylics and a variety of mediums to create abstract, high color, complex images. Her last two solo shows were at ARC Gallery and Nych Gallery.
© Elyse Martin