Elizabeth R. Mahoney

Artist’s Statement

These paintings represent work done over three summers spent in artist residencies -- the first in NY and the other two in Chicago at the Art Institute. The majority are from this summer in Chicago.

The process of painting is more important than the result for me. Using line, form, and color to imply a sense of space while, seemingly at the same time, denying that space interests me. I explore the push and pull of flatness and spatial depth. Images that at once seem familiar and identifiable but that can’t quite be named or be a real space fascinate me. I see it as the visual equivalent of having a word on the tip of your tongue.

In Chicago, my residency allowed me the space and time to paint as well as the opportunity to meet and discuss my work with some of today’s most renowned artists – artists who are making artwork today, which will likely be the art history of tomorrow. These conversations pushed me to rethink what I was doing and why I was doing it. After all, painting has been declared dead at least a hundred times since the Daguerreotype -- maybe, most recently by Frank Stella. If this is true then what is the purpose of painting? Both the final project and the act of creating it. Has the vocabulary of painting been exhausted? How do you use the vocabulary established in the 20th Century in a way that isn’t contrived? How do you use the syntax of art from the past and make it new and your own? How do you balance playing with and against the establishment? Critics, artists, and patrons pose these questions when discussing contemporary art. These questions make me want to put painting aside altogether, at times; yet, I don’t. These questions are far from my mind when I am painting; however, at the same time, they are important questions to contemplate—the art world is forever changing and is inextricably linked to the world of technology and information we live in. I have no solid answers to the above questions, though I search for them each time I paint.

Derick Perry

Parallel construction

Derick Perry

You do not need the statement below. It sounds like you are making excuses. If you must say this, then you have to find some way to say it more positively.

Derick Perry

I like your dashes better, but once I changed the sentence this seems to work better.

Derick Perry

I personally hate rhetorical questions. Either answer the questions with your words or your work. You may want another opinion here.

Derick Perry

Passive voice

Bert Mahoney

2009-09-20T21:02:04

Bert Mahoney