Elise Loomis
Elise Loomis
Elise Loomis a multimedia collage and print artist from Denver, Colorado. She received her BFA from Concordia University.
My artwork can be best described as psychological metaphor. Certain images quietly force themselves into my everyday life, nagging me to incorporate them into my current work. Lately these have included bone structures like the ribcage and pelvis, insects such as moths and butterflies, and qualities like iridescence and the color red. These motifs are more or less discoveries, they are not of my own genius. They manifest themselves in nature, literature, and imagery, and they refuse to be ignored. Often times I feel drawn to use a particular symbol, even one that may cause me discomfort, but I know in my gut that it must be important if it has been prompting me for awhile. Usually, it is not until the work is complete that I understand the metaphor behind it; I trust my intuition before my understanding. In other words, my work informs me, I do not inform it. My work reveals to me an image of my internal self, a concept that has always been troubling for me to grasp in more literal ways. This being said, my identity as a mortal being is something that consistently appears in my work, but applies to humanity in general. By analyzing my own psychological symbols surrounding the concept of mortality, I create a direct situation that pushes others to do the same. Similar to what I experience while creating my work, my audience will find viewing my work uncomfortable, yet valuable to the understanding of their own identity as a mortal being. Perhaps this explains why many of the motifs I am currently dealing with (the bones, insects, and qualities of iridescence and the color red) allude to the idea of death and/or an inner being. These symbols have been presented to me so that I may present them as prompting metaphors to my fellow human beings.