Dear Reader...
In two days, I'm releasing a new collection - known as "S P E C T R U M". These paintings are simple, direct, honest. To some, they may seem even childish. They may make you scratch your head. You may love them (like I do) and think they are brilliant. But hiding within these vivid and uncomplex layers lies an unbeknownst secret....
These paintings are truly the distillation of years of emotions, hopes, dreams, fears, and courage that it's taken to carve out my space in this world as an artist.
There's no way I'd truly be able to share every moment that led to these works - as they have been weaving within me for over three years - but I'll do my best to at least share the "good bits" and give you the story behind this small but mighty collection...
*Curtain Opens*
It's March 2022. I live in New Jersey (in a completely different life) and I'm battling with my current identity hardcore. Everything feels wrong. My job, my marriage, where I live, almost everything about my life - except one thing. My art. Being in my studio (a converted garage which I took over, built a giant easel in, and splattered paint on the walls and floor) is the place where I feel most alive, excited, free, and truly like myself. I get lost, time disappears, and there aren't enough art workshops, courses, books, and materials for my thirst to be satiated. I'm reading “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert and she is feeding my soul in a way I never knew possible.
One day, quite possibly in meditation, or maybe in the shower or driving on the road? I see in my mind's eye a series of paintings on a wall. It's hazy, but they are large, bright, and bold. They are saturated colors and very minimalistic - I don't know much, but I know they are abstract, colorful, made up of the colors of the visible light spectrum, and that I am meant to make this art.
But I DON’T.
I don’t order the canvases. I don’t get the paint colors. I don’t plan my studio time.
And I let the idea get buried under a pile of distractions, anxiety, and self-doubt.
As I continue to wrestle with my disparate inner and outer worlds, a few weeks later, as I open my weekly Groove Newsletter by Maria Brito…
All of the sudden my jaw DROPS.
Right there, staring me in the face, is my series. Spectrum. In full color. Created by an artist named Ellsworth Kelly in the ripe year of - get this -
1969!!!!
WITH THE SAME EXACT TITLE!!!!
You can’t make this stuff up.
In fact - I was so struck by this moment, that I took a screenshot and dated it.
This was significant.
This really meant something.
My vision was already created?
Exactly like I'd imagined?
Now what?
Stay tuned for the rest of the story tomorrow...
xx,
Elisabeth