Ellen Sherman is an abstract artist working in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work revolves around the intersection of moments that have been carefully sketched and planned, and moments left to chance; where the paint and canvas forge their own path. The resulting pieces are a bit of a group project between the artist and her materials.

Ellen received her BFA in Studio Art from Michigan State University in 2008 and has exhibited work throughout the US and internationally.

-Statement-

My work is about material, experimentation and process; the colors and forms are informed by my environment. Through multi-year layered paintings, cut up sketches and old work reassembled, or paintings that stop before they might be considered ‘finished’ I am interested in exploring the nature of making art and our relationship with what we see.

My process is impulse and intuition; reacting to what is happening on the surface of the canvas in that moment. Pools of paint moved by gravity, water soaking through a page, combined with an editing process that might be years out, or immediate and delivered by swift scissors; the moment repurposed into something else.

Everything is both impermanent and permanent and my work is attempting to live in the in-between.

I am seeking out exploration, test and trial, for the discovery of tiny worlds in overlapping pigments and the freedom/excitement/terror of knowing it might be cut apart tomorrow.