Inside the Studio
Elise Ansel
One of the major themes I pursue in my work is the theme of transformation. I make paintings that are derived from Renaissance and Baroque depictions of bacchanals and figures in the landscape. My work is about reclaiming, re-visioning and re-presenting paintings that were created at a time when women were seen as objects rather than primary participants in the creative dialogue. The paintings I work from are distant mirrors which I interpret through the lens of gestural abstraction. I use painterly notation and shorthand to translate historical paintings into a contemporary pictorial language. My method allows me to engage with and pay homage to some of the greatest paintings in the history of western art while at the same time challenging and transforming a sexist visual lexicon.
