Elizabeth Matthews
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Warming Up the Audience
acrylic on paper, 20 x 16
I painted this “en plein aire” by moonlight on the outer banks and entered it in a member’s exhibit at Rehoboth Art League, Delaware, and to my surprise it won the Thomas Macfarland Skelly Award and then sold to a lovely new collector.
Without Authentication
74″ x 48″ Oil and charcoal on diptych panels
Honorable Mention Painting Award, 94th Annual Spring Salon, Springville, UT
Storytelling can have a negative effect on the life of a single individual. Storytellers know that those listening will believe whoever is first to tell and that the story gains credibility by being retold many times. Daniel Kahneman describes this human tendency to believe the first telling of a story in his book “Thinking Fast and Slow.” He says we like to believe whoever is first to tell and as humans we rarely check our sources or give others the chance to authenticate the stories told about them. In this way the human family is easily deceived and may inadvertently participate in sharing false stories that isolate and undermine innocent individuals.
In this artwork the story being told lacks authentication. This is symbolized by the blank color shapes representing a missing Chinese chop or seal that is traditionally used to verify and validate authenticity of a work.
Inanimate Escape (with apologies to Edweard Muybridge)
25 x 25, oil on canvas
Referencing the iconic, stop-action photographs of Muybridge’s galloping horse, which first demonstrated that a running horse is flying as all four legs leave the ground at once, this work records the implausible dash of an empty family chair, symbolizing the difficulty of leaving a family with established traditions of domestic violence and cult like behavior.
Galloping horse by Edweard Muybridge
We All Fall Down
Drawing 19 x 15 Framed 39 x 35
Graphite and chalk with colored pencil on paper
Enmeshment is to be caught or involved in something unpleasant or dangerous from which it is difficult to escape. Enmeshment is a dysfunctional family dynamic that is passed through the generations. Enmeshment usually originates due to some sort of trauma or illness (addiction, mental illness, or a seriously ill child who is overprotected). https://livewellwithsharonmartin.com/enmeshment/
19 x 15
Charcoal and colored pencil on paper
Indoctrination of the Innocent 24 x 30, oil on linen Indoctrination is the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. (dictionary.com)
