Descriptive Narratives
Elaine Pizza: Artist Statement
Veils of color seemingly affected by air, light, and atmospheric effects create transparent forms hovering over a shallow space. A large green form shimmers with light emanating from layers of yellow gold, orange, and pink below the surface. The paint transforms itself into an image, which is made of light and reflecting light. It does not represent nature but seeks to “outdo” nature. Emerging from the loose fluid veils of paint, nature is reordered, distilled, into a lucid arrangement of interacting colored forms. My aim is to use the transparent luminosity of the paint to create the effect of backlighting that is reminiscent of stained glass.
There is an emphasis on the edge of forms and the edge of colors. The deliberate yet sometimes-delicate manipulation of the edges creates a line quality that adds to the image of serenity and grace, takes over and controls the technique, or combines to make larger forms. I may apply paint over, or scrape into a layer of paint always seeking to reveal what came before it.
Space is created in my paintings to help achieve ambiguity, an equivocal quality. With the use of transparent overlapping forms which vary in size, I choose not to emphasize the flat surface, but instead create a shallow space that moves in or out from the picture plane, a shallow movement of the surface akin to breathing.
Many layers of transparent and translucent paint create color that cannot be achieved by the mixing of colors on the palette. The translucent layers of color create a sensuous passage of reflected light or a final color that allows light to pass through it. The arrangement and choice of these difficult to name colors, are not meant to relate to reality, but to coax a thought by their variance to what we normally see color doing in nature. The arrangement and choice of these ineffable colors often create a dialog with other paintings in my studio. Each painting is worked on as a separate subject, and not consciously intended to be grouped together. Yet, they often combine visually and create a dialog through their similarities and differences. This becomes a new piece and I hang them together as a visual unit.
I do not endeavor to depict nature or its symbols. My work is concerned with visualizing the phenomena of light, which becomes a metaphor for a spiritual experience, and reflects the underlying nature of things in my personal unconscious.
