Michael Eble
Lafayette, La
Michael Eble is an Abstract Painter who is influenced by the coastal environment, topography, and a sense of place in the world.
MessageMichael Eble was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received a BFA degree in painting from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a MFA degree in painting and drawing from the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, Mississippi. He is currently Curator of Events & Exhibitions for the College of the Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He recently relocated back to Louisiana from Minnesota where he was an Associate Professor of Studio Art and Curator of the Edward J. & Helen Jean Morrison Gallery at the University of Minnesota, Morris for thirteen years. He has shown his paintings and works on paper in numerous regional and national solo and group exhibitions, most recently in Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Eble was recently awarded a Artspark Grant from the Acadiana Center for the Arts in 2016, he has also been a recipient of several Imagine Fund awards and Grant in Aid awards from the University of Minnesota, along with a Residential Fellowship in 2008 from the Institute for Advance Study, along with additional grants and research funding from the McKnight Foundation, Lake Region Arts Council, Vermont Studio Center, Science Museum of Minnesota, and the New York Mills regional cultural center.
Statement
My current work is a collection of visual arrangements that utilize shape and color as a formal language. These new works resemble abstracted maps that are visual clusters derived from an aerial perspective. By embracing a flat perspective, I begin to draw upon the abstract qualities that emphasize structure and order through asymmetrical design. A visual language is invented through the meanders, motifs, repetition of forms, and palettes that refer to coastal landscapes. Each piece is created as part of a visual atlas that records a collection of responses to place and experiences, providing me with a record and clearer understanding of the environment around me.
My creative practice is based on a process of contemplation, play, and intuitiveness. The work slowly evolves from each working session, in which I work on several pieces at once. I recently introduced collage into my painting practice. The immediacy of color from painted paper, commercial cardstock, or found paper, provides an alternative to the rigors of a hard edge painting process. The layering of visual information into abstracted forms serves as my language in paint. My visual language consists of invented shapes and melodic palates that are derived from the natural environments, cartography, mid-century design, and maritime design. Combining these resources and influences has allowed me to produce original works that our honest and personal.
My work conjures ideas of place and history, beauty and loss, time and transformation. It is through my artwork that I would encourage viewers to become mindful of their own environments and begin to contemplate the visual relationships that make up those places and experiences.