STRANGE and gentle
As the years go by, I have come to view the details with different eyes. With people, I have a far greater capacity for empathy even without intimate knowledge of every detail. But with art, I find myself captivated by the minutia. I enjoy dissecting the elements. The sculpture of today’s Artist of the Day, Ellen Jewett, keeps me busy for hours. A cursory glance may reveal spectacular figurative work, but the individual elements offer tiny narratives to be combined into a more complicated world view. Mesmerizing. (continues below)
“At first glance my work explores the more modern prosaic concept of nature: a source of serene nostalgia balanced with the more visceral experience of ‘wildness’ as remarkably alien and indifferent. Upon closer inspection of each ‘creature’ the viewer may discover a frieze on which themes as familiar as domestication and as abrasive as domination fall into sharp relief.” — Ellen Jewett