Untitled Document

Cuttings from Consciousness

What if an artist, in an effort to explore the room around her, blindfolded herself and muted her sense of touch with thick gloves? What if she then tried to replicate this experience on canvas? Such are the sensations at work in this new set of paintings.

Of course, the room I’ve been groping around in for material recently is more metaphorical than physical. The room is not an actual space, but the contours of my own consciousness.

During the act of painting, the blindfold and gloves come off as I bind inner impulses, ideas, memories, and feelings with visual equivalents found in the real world—still life objects, color, pattern, line and brushstroke.

The resulting images strive to upend the still life genre by turning pictures of flowers into images of consciousness. They are the metaphorical equivalent of a given moment, wherein memory and feelings, rationality and instinct impinge on the present and are integrated into a patched-together framework.

The images function on another level, as well, as a conflation of artistic genres, bringing together landscape, still life, collage, cubism, color and pattern, realism, abstraction and influences from Asian art. As such, they represent a painter’s consciousness as she steps into the studio and approaches her work.

--Ellen Goldschmidt
May, 2007

Cuttings from Consciousness What if an artist, in an effort to explore the room around her, blindfolded herself and muted her sense of touch with thick gloves? What if she then tried to replicate this experience on canvas? Such are the sensations at work in this new set of paintings. Of course, the room I’ve been groping around in for material recently is more metaphorical than physical. The room is not an actual space, but the contours of my own consciousness. During the act of painting, the blindfold and gloves come off as I bind inner impulses, ideas, memories, and feelings with visual equivalents found in the real world—still life objects, color, pattern, line and brushstroke. The resulting images strive to upend the still life genre by turning pictures of flowers into images of consciousness. They are the metaphorical equivalent of a given moment, wherein memory and feelings, rationality and instinct impinge on the present and are integrated into a patched-together framework. The images function on another level, as well, as a conflation of artistic genres, bringing together landscape, still life, collage, cubism, color and pattern, realism, abstraction and influences from Asian art. As such, they represent a painter’s consciousness as she steps into the studio and approaches her work. --Ellen Goldschmidt May, 2007
Cuttings 60x48 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2007

Scrim 36x36 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2007

Earthly Love 36x36 inches, acrylic, collage, and printing ink on canvas, 2007

Evening Snowball 36x48 inches, acrylic and collage on canvas, 2006

Looking Out 36x48 inches, acrylic, printing ink, and collage on canvas, 2006

I Let My Garden Grow 24x36 inches, acrylic and printing ink on canvas, 2006

Untitled 24x36 inches, acrylic and printing ink on canvas, 2006

All images copyright 2003-2007 Ellen Goldschmidt.