Description
53rd Annual Mark Twain Library Art Show
Artist’s Bio:
Elisa Marmer
Website: emarmerstudios.com
Email: elisa@emarmerstudios.com
Instagram: @emarmerstudios
914-260-1993
Recent Juried Exhibitions:
Mark Twain Library Art Show, Redding CT, December 7 – 15, 2024, Juror: David Dunlop.
Mark Twain Library 2023 Art Show, Redding, CT, December 1 – 10, 2023, Juror: David Dunlop.
Mark Twain Library 50th Anniversary Art Show, Redding, CT, December 3 – 11, 2022, Jurors: Pamela Reese and Kathy Anderson.
Norwalk Arts Festival, Norwalk, CT, June 23 – 24, 2018, Juror: Susan Brown Gordon, owner and operator of Gordon Fine Art.
Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT, September 26 – October 27, 2015, Juror: Lisa Messinger, independent curator in modern and contemporary art; formerly on the curatorial staff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City for over 25 years and adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University’s Museum Studies graduate program.
Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT, September 27 – October 26, 2014, Juror: Anne Strauss, independent curator based in New York City; Former Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Artist’s Statement:
I first became acquainted with myself as an artist as I approached the age of 40. For most of my life I thought of myself as a “left-brain” person, and so I pursued a career in law. I was never happy as a lawyer however, and though I practiced law for seven years, it was very easy for me to walk away from it to raise my children. Still, I had a constant feeling that I wasn’t quite doing what I needed to be doing or loved doing, whatever that was. One day, out of the blue, my young daughter asked me to draw a picture of her toy. As I began, I had an unexpected realization: I was able see that toy as raw information coming into my brain. In a flash, I understood that by drawing only that information, absent any layer of interpretation my brain usually imposed, it would make sense on paper. Afterward, I could not stop thinking about that moment, and obtained the name of a local artist for some private lessons.
An unexpected burst of creative energy followed. Drawing soon led to painting. Oils led to pastels. Over a period of several months, I came to realize that I had had many artistic impulses throughout my life that I never examined closely or even recognized, and that I had unknowingly suppressed an essential part of me.
What inspires me most are ordinary scenes and moments that we take for granted. I want to capture something about them that makes the viewer take notice and smile at the familiarity of experience. I especially love compositions that convey something- even the smallest thing- as happening, about to happen or just having happened, as I believe that creates a bridge for us to enter the scene and relate to it. Even with landscapes, I try to capture an aspect of light or mood that will bring the viewer right there to the scene.
Connecting with the viewer is what I love most about painting, far more even than connecting with myself as an artist.
