One of the great things about visiting with artist-friends is that you get to hang out at their studios. Seeing evolving artworks is a super treat to me, and I love to recognize something in a later incarnation, because I feel connected to it in a way which doesn’t exist in works which I’m seeing for the first time.
Paid a visit to Ellie’s studio in Brooklyn today, and got to see the old things made new (like sweet potato jars, recognizable books and familiar furniture) and the things which were brand new to me, including a number of element’s from Ellie’s recent MFA thesis show at Hunter College, here in New York.
It was exciting to see pieces which I’d only seen via the Internet in person, and actually get to touch and photograph them (another plus visiting an artist you know – because really, when else do you get all the cool details of how it was created?!).
Ellie’s work has evolved greatly from the time I’ve known her in Los Angeles, painting in her dining room studio. Her older works are my familiar friends, one of the chicken paintings the only thing which has been hung in our last three homes.
The new work, Watershed, is exquisite and speaks to me of line and space, and many things about the world around us and the connectivity which is inherent in where we are and what we do. It is graceful and allows itself to breathe, which I believe is something difficult to achieve when making work that says more than the sum of its parts.
I look forward to seeing what comes next, and am thankful that I will be around to see it as it develops. It has occurred to me that times change, and people change and so does their work, and that is a good thing too.