the work of elise ansel is complex and beautiful, light in touch and heavy in meaning. we've all seen artists re-interpret old pieces of art and move them to abstraction, but these struck a special chord with me. the people become almost ghost-like, like some sort of memory. it feels kind of sad for some reason, but really beautiful.
from the artist:
"My paintings are about re-creating, re-visioning, and re-presenting paintings that were created at a time when women were seen as objects... My paintings begin with a specific pictorial point of departure but then move towards abstraction as the representational content is balanced by focus upon color, composition and the materiality of the paint... The real subject becomes the substance and surface of oil paint, the variety of its applications, and the ways in which it can be used to celebrate life."
via miss moss