Artist: Ellen Siebers
Title: Orchid's Chair
Dimensions: 10" x 10"
Medium: Oil on Birch Panel
Hi everyone!
This week we have a mini-interview with Hudson, NY based painter Ellen Siebers. I encountered her work on social media and was struck by the way she constructs worlds that feel like true mind space. It was great to get to chat with her here.
Laura Vahlberg: I'm curious about the picture within a picture that often happens in your work. I'm reminded of keyholes, windows, paintings themselves, and dreams. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Ellen Siebers: They certainly are all of the things you mentioned. I have a deep love affair with the history of painting and I am addicted to it, so I find myself often thinking about paintings or painterly moments in a way that relates to the concept of a viewfinder. Some of the references are from paintings and some are from my own life where I can see an instance that feels like a painting. I know that this is something many of us do, and we now more than ever live in a world of images. I want to make these moments live alongside other moments of immersive beauty (in a way that is more bodily vs. as an observer). So for me, the paintings operate within a tension found between being an observer and observed/lived-in beauty.
LV: How does memory play a part in the creation of your pieces? In a previous interview with Art Hound you wrote that memories from the midwest landscape played a part in constructing the images in your work. Is that still the case?
ES: It plays a big part. During the time of that interview, I was still living in Bed-Stuy and was really missing green space. When I lived in Wisconsin growing up I always thought that living in the city would suit me better, but when I moved I found that I do really require daily time in nature to make my best work. The need really is ingrained. Now I live in the Hudson Valley and I connect directly to that need, so the memories I draw from are usually very recent and relate to trying to communicate and reiterate vibrational beauty from the landscape and objects around me.
LV: Lastly, (I ask this question to everyone) how do you know when a painting is completed? Do you have specific goals in mind?
ES: It is that kind of “you know when you know” feeling that occurs in the gut, not the brain, and it has taken many years of work to get to a place where I feel confident connecting to that. I get this feeling of satisfaction when things lock into place and you know that it wouldn’t benefit you or the painting to keep going (I’ll always keep going if I think it will benefit either). It also can help to snap a photo and look at it later if I am questioning it, but honestly, if I am doing that then my guess is that it isn’t finished since when it is a good one I just know. And that feeling is very much the goal, but one that partially feels out of my control. After that feeling happens then I really need to try to get out of my own way and trust it.
LV: Where can readers currently see your work in person?
ES: I have a few shows up this spring. I am exhibiting with John Joseph Mitchell and Elisa Soliven at Harper’s East Hampton from March 25 to May 8, and with Mads Hilbert and Rema Ghuloum at Pt. 2 in Oakland from Apr 1 to May 6. I have a piece in a charity auction with Ethan Cohen and the funds go to aid victims of the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria. I’m also in a group show called Nature Holds a Mirror in a virtual environment created by Ambar Quijano.