My studio and art practice are essential in centering my attention, renewing my energy, and engaging with myself and the formal processes of painting. When beginning a new work, I draw shapes and lines on the canvas while referring to previous explorations that share repeating ideas about color, shape, and mark-making.
Using oils, I create intuitively, not always knowing how a piece will come together but certain that color and its intensity will be driving factors. Working in paint’s nonverbal language, I begin to recognize figurative or associative elements as they emerge from the push and pull of gestural lines and overlapping forms.
Content and meaning come afterward by carefully reflecting on how individual paintings relate to current and past bodies of work. Their correlations and narrative are not literal, and the spaces are deliberately ambiguous. My intention is to capture the impressions and sensations left behind from dreams, emotions, or memories without being limited to the specific details of the events themselves, leaving room for viewer participation and interpretation.
—Ellen Soffer