Elise Morris' love of nature is gently and deftly conveyed in her large and softly-hued paintings. As an artist, she has an uncanny ability to portray nature as a constantly changing, shifting and moving entity. She tells us she likes to paint elements that are in a state of change, such as a leave falling or a bud about to burst open. Pinpoints of light fleck the canvas, like sunlight glinting through a tangle of leaves, branches and vines. We love the way Elise explores the “concepts of nature, at the edge of abstraction.”
She also adds, “The shapes of nature are so much more surprising than what I imagine them to be. And so, I start with something tangible. In drawing the curves and winding trails of a branch in bloom, I have learned that beauty is in the unexpected and momentary.”
In Elise’s words: “I am interested in exploring nature’s point of view - how nature might perceive itself on the inside. From this perspective, I imagine a chaotic tumble of change and growth, a relentless and overwhelming surge of interconnected events. Painting takes the form of inquiry where my process is made visible. I want to hold a moment in my focus, noticing the fragility of its current state before it quickly becomes something completely different. In this way, I am watchful of my surroundings. There is beauty in unexpected places, not just waiting to be found, but waiting to really be seen.”
Elise received a B.A. in painting and printmaking at UC Santa Cruz in 1997, and is the recipient of the Hyde and Benteen Irwin Scholarship for excellence and promise in the visual arts. She lived in the Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps Volunteer from1998 until 2000. In 2004, she received a Master of Fine Arts from the JFK University Arts & Consciousness program in Berkeley, CA. She has exhibited throughout the Bay Area, and has work in corporate and individual collections throughout the U.S.
|
