Elizabeth Ferrill
Biography
A native of Seattle, WA, Elizabeth received her BFA in Painting and Printmaking from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She received her MFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Elizabeth has had solo exhibitions nationally and internationally including in Aspen, CO; Nashville, TN; Omaha, NE; Peoria, IL; Reno, NV and Berlin, Germany. She was an artist in residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, NE. She taught in the printmaking departments of the University of Nevada, Reno and the Rhode Island School of Design. Elizabeth is the Artistic Director of Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking and Chair of the Artists-In-Residence program at Anderson Ranch Arts Center.
Exhibits
Dedee Shattuck Gallery | March 30 - May 1, 2016 | Works on Paper
Artist Statement
The vast solitude of the American landscape is the subject matter of my work, particularly places that seem cold but emotionally charged, dehumanizing yet full of personal experience. This includes empty public places that are usually packed with people, spaces that remain tensely suspended within a quiet moment between what has occurred in the past and what will occur in the future. I utilize the pochoir technique to create my works on paper. Pochoir is a printmaking/painting method traditionally used to hand color images in books. This stencil medium that employs cutout shapes and gouache creates solid, often overlapping forms that converge into hard-edged compositions. Each overlay of shape and color responds to the simplified and functional architectural properties of airports, motels, border crossings, bus stops, and other publicly utilized institutions. The stencil functions as a layer of mediation that implements a control system to my mark-making process. The subjects in the work are all familiar yet underexamined peripheries of the American vista. The pieces exist as simplifications of the complex and paradoxical atmosphere of the public world. I explore public spaces with a sincere quest for beauty while at the same time acknowledging their tension, functionality, and ability to inherently make a statement about our behavior as human beings.
