top of page

Elizabeth D'Amico

Painter


Childhood experiences influence us for the rest of our lives. Every time I paint en plein air, I renew my love of experiences growing up close to nature on a farm in the beautiful foothills of the Berkshires in northwestern Connecticut. It explains my continued love of gardening and my inability to take a simple walk without observing the details of nature closely. There is so much to cherish and respect about the balances, beauty and strength of our natural environment. Much of the content of my art is about the climate crisis we face. I am a mixed media artist with a focus on box assemblages and found object sculptures. Part of the reason for this focus is that I feel totally free and environmentally responsible about using found object materials. Creating an assemblage is always an honest and all consuming voyage of discovery for me. I love the surprising twists and turns along the way as I discover where I am going with each work. This, too, harkens back to early childhood when one of my greatest joys was arranging and rearranging objects in a dollhouse my father built for me. Joseph Cornell’s work has influenced me in the sense that I experience the joy of using objects from my past and giving them special meaning. In my memory box, “Metamorphosis,” the tiny copper vessel is a piece that has been around since my early childhood; I had kept it all this time simply because I loved its shape and color. My studio is packed with such found object collections and the collections continue to grow. What new possibilities they suggest is anyone’s guess. My entire career has been a focus on arts and arts advocacy. I have taught both art and music publicly and privately. Whatever the field or medium, the ability to take risks, to see the world from many different perspectives, and to enjoy the process of creating is what an artist’s life is all about. Robert Browning wrote, “…a man’s reach should far exceed his grasp.” Every artist stretches each time a new work is begun.



Comments


bottom of page