Vignette: Elizabeth Foley

"Making the work becomes a journey of balance in and of itself." - Elizabeth Foley

"Enso-Clarity" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut and collagraph, 26x38in, 2015, NFS

“My work focuses on the interplay of lives and the concept of life-balance, explains Elizabeth Foley. “I explore the circle as a resolved but potentially irregular shape, representing both the balance and variety we all strive for in our lives. How is wholeness achieved and what tips the circle off center? What distracts from the main circle? Does wholeness come at the price of predictability?” 

Printmaking need not avoid explorations of depth in form and space, yet it would appear to be a common trend in contemporary art that prints be concerned with surface, texture, pattern, and field. Of course, this technical and compositional observation doesn’t restrict depth in subject or theme. Much to the contrary, the embrace or even celebration of 2-dimensional surface art by working print makers calls attention to the profundity of abstract and limited representational imagery. Foley shows how much the opportunity for suggestion and meaning in her work depends on the invitation to the viewer inherent in abstraction.

"Revolving" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut collagraph, 21x21in, 2017, $600 (unframed)

“The vibrant dialogue between shape, color, and pattern invites viewers into the work. I create spaces in which the viewer feels involved in the work: being both delighted and challenged. The colors activate the imagination; they influence and play off each other in order to shift and tilt planes of information. Overlapping transparencies create the illusion of distance and scale, as well as deepening relationships between shapes.”

Foley uses relief, monoprint, and collagraph techniques together to make unique images from the same plates – “a potential template for life balance”. She is currently exhibiting in "Venn Diagram" Work by Blake Snyder Eames & Elizabeth Foley, running through December 18, 2017 at The Grand Theater, Frankfort, KY, and will be participating in the Sixth Annual Black Friday Art Sale at Loudoun House in Lexington, December 1 from 6-9pm and December 2 from 2-7pm

Foley was also selected to be a part of the inaugural Hadley Creatives Program, a 6-month learning and engagement experience for local artists who are at a pivotal point in their careers administered by The Community Foundation of Louisville and Capital Creative.

Permanent Collections
Bluegrass Printmakers Cooperative Saint Joseph Hospital
Chase Bank, Cincinnati, OH and Louisville, KY Saint Joseph Jessamine County Emergency Treatment Center
Good Samaritan Hospital Southern Graphics Council
Kentucky One Health Alliance Tiger Lily Press
Keystone Financial Group University of Arizona
LexArts University of Kentucky Hospital
Littler Mendelson, P.C. University of Miami
May Department Store Washington University School of Art
Ohio University School of Art West Virginia University
Ohio University Alden Library

Hometown: Wellesley, Massachusetts
Education: BFA, Graphic Design, Washington University, 1990; MFA, Printmaking, Ohio University, 1997; M.Ed, Secondary Education, Ohio University, 1997
Website: foleyprints.com
Instagram: @foleyprints

 

Scroll down for more images

"Candy Colored Sky" by ElizabethFoley, woodcut, 38x26in, 2016, $900 (unframed)

"Coming Home" by ElizabethFoley, woodcut, 21x21in, 2015, $400 (unframed)

"Floating Candy" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut collagraph, 38x26in, 2016, $900 (unframed)

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Vignette: Elizabeth Stevenson

"Untitled #1" by Elizabeth Stevenson, 4.5x4.5x4.5in, fired white clay (2015)

We are officially in the Holocene (“entirely recent”) epoch, which began 11,700 years ago after the last major ice age, but many argue for the current period to be term “Anthropocene”—from anthropo, for “man,” and cene, for “new”—because human-kind has incurred a profound enough impact on the earth to merit the classification. Claims about global warming aside, mass extinctions of plant and animal species, and pollution on a large scale have inarguably changed the planet.

"Untitled #4" by Elizabeth Stevenson, 11x15in, collograph relief print on paper (2015), $150 | BUY NOW

Elizabeth Stevenson is directly inspired by this concept in her work, “… it fueled me to keep creating,” she explains. “Natural patterns are what originally inspired me to create this body of work. The lines I would see in sand when water washed over it or the small orb like forms of pollen particles. After looking to so much of nature for inspiration it made sense to study the science surrounding it. Once I had a better understanding of how nature works and the way in which humans are destroying it I found even more reason to create work motivated by it.”

For Stevenson, the process begins with a study of microscopic images: “Beginning with open organic forms I wished to investigate natural configurations that I saw and abstract them.” In the very beginning, she finds the three-dimensional forms to be soft and fragile, almost vulnerable to the pending manipulation by the artist’s hand. Her carving is primarily deductive, removing mass to create new empty space.

“The forms continued to push me to create and find different processes for making, which led me to develop a more jagged and unraveled representation of the natural world. With these new lines and shapes I began to look to more macroscopic imagery for inspiration. There is a glacial quality in the appearance of the newer pieces, as the lines seem to melt and become undone. Fluid lines drip off into empty space, or are they being contained? All of these forms seemingly contained within a circle, which I can only explain as an attempt to control what I was creating or to control the things that inspire me.”

Age: 21
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BFA candidate, Interdisciplinary Sculpture, Kentucky College of Art + Design at Spalding University, Louisville, Kentucky

"Untitled #3" by Elizabeth Stevenson, 13.5x10.5in, monotype print on paper (2015), $100 | BUY NOW

"Untitled #2" by Elizabeth Stevenson, 3.5x3.5x3.5in, fired white clay (2015)

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2016 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.