Constructing Paradise, Turn of Events | Oil paintings by Elizabeth Tracy

ARTIST STATEMENT: ELIZABETH L. TRACY It‘s a pleasure to return to Santa Cruz to exhibit, as I have enjoyed a long history with this city. I graduated from UCSC in 1976, and after earning an MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, I returned for a few years in the early 1980s as Lecturer in Art and the manager of the printmaking studio. I later worked in Connecticut as an artist-in-residence at Trinity College and in Boston where I taught at Wheaton College and had a studio in Fort Point Channel. In 1992 I moved to Santa Monica, where I currently paint and teach private art classes in The Slanted Floor Studio. For the last 15 years I have been working on a series of oil paintings called “Constructing Paradise” and triptychs called “Turn of Events”. In these works, I aim to create a visual conversation between realistically rendered garden forms and super-imposed maps of gardens. These two elements have very different graphic qualities—one smoothly rendered and the other abstracted into dots and lines. The first conjures the experience of being in a garden, the later explores the concepts behind garden design. Gardens play many roles in our lives; They are places of sanctuary, meditation, play, and nurture, and are significant in most religions and many myths. My intent for the paintings is for the various experiences of being in a particular garden to resonate, while also suggesting its human design. _ Join us for a lovely evening welcoming Santa Monica-based artist, Elizabeth Tracy. Elizabeth will be showing large scale triptychs as well as smaller paintings. Drinks and snacks will be provided.