By Angela Romeo
The Izen Miller Gallery is currently showing DIVERSITY- Artists from the Desert. The exhibition features work from Philippe Chambon, Downs, Ruth Gonzalez, Marcy Gregory, Nora Helmer, Bernard Hoyes, John Lubetow, Barry Orleans and Elaine Sigwald. On Saturday December 3rd at 5:00 pm the Gallery will hosts “Conversations with the Artists”. This is an opportunity for the public to meet the various artists. The exhibiting artists will give short talks about their work.
The show runs through December 30th. The gallery is located at The River.71800 Highway 111, Suite B113, and Rancho Mirage.
Elaine Sigwald has three pieces in the DIVERSITY exhibition. Using digital technology Elaine creates paintings. “My process, basically I start by sitting in front of a blank computer screen staring vapidly at the screen. When the inertia lifts I pick up my mouse and start to paint freehand. For me it is akin to being in front of an easel except there are no toxic chemicals involved which for me is essential as I am chemically sensitive,” noted Elaine.
Elaine is a storyteller. She weaves detailed imagery that start with figments of imagination. “I am compelled to create art; this action is essential to my existence while I am still a corporal being on this planet and not yet returned to stardust. I create stories and myths and then populate them with images of beings or abstract drawings. The constant in my work is ‘What if I…..?’”
“In the DIVERSITY exhibition, I have three pieces. Two of the pieces in the exhibition reference my lifetime fascination with exploring the infinite possibilities of parallel universes and what their worlds and the beings that populate them might look like. I’ll always remember reading the Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who, to my daughter Kim and thinking this is how I see myself, an incalculably minute being living on a spinning orb in the middle of unfathomable darkness in the vastness of space. As a child I often wondered why I never fell off, that was before I learned about gravity. My hopes are that the viewers of these two pieces when reading their titles, Mapquest Parallel Universe and Fishing on Elysium, might themselves be inspired to ponder the infinite possibilities afforded to all sentient beings and wonder who’s out there and what are they doing.”
Elaine’s pieces do allow the viewer to wander into a vast wonderland/wasteland. The journey seems to be limited only by the viewer’s ability to see beyond the canvas.
Elaine’s third piece, The Tzar’s Egg, is a reference, Tzar’s Nicholas II the last Emperor of Russia. The Tsar presented his wife Alexandra Feodorovna with priceless Faberge eggs for all important occasions. The piece has an eerie very three-dimensional quality that tricks the eye into seeing a three-dimensional work.
For more information on Elaine Sigwald visit www.elainesigwald.com. For more information of Izen Miller Gallery, visit, www.izenmillergallery.com
