ARTIST STATEMENT
Art finds itself. Risk-taking, mistakes and accidents are collaborations
with the unknown. And boundaries are not useful for innovation.
I’ve worked with pigments, mirrored glass, tar paper, cyanotype, installations,
chemically etched copper, bird’s nests. I draw on paper with a high-voltage electrode
on a copper table. I explore the elusive through the material.
I was fortunate to study at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
It was there that I became familiar with the 20th century avant-garde ideals
of thinkers like John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jacob Lawrence,
Ruth Asawa, and Anni and Josef Albers. These artists taught at the experimental
Black Mountain College, which was committed to the idea that the arts
were essential to the learning experience. From there,
I studied Indian classical music to learn the art of improvisation.
And my gut was the strongest teacher.
Ellen Ziegler CV
Artist bio