GALLERY NEWS

Alexandra Eldridge is a mixed-media artist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Born of artist parents, expressive creation and an imaginative world was a path and reality recognized at an early age. She co-founded an establishment for the arts, Golgonooza, based upon the philosophies of William Blake. An artist of the imagination, Eldridge begins with a blank canvas and white Venetian plaster. From here, the “richness of the inner world, of the unconscious, of the imagination” begins to emerge in shape and form. Imagery and symbols find color within the composition, though symbols, explains Eldridge, need to be deconstructed, need to change. “They’re forever expansive and have no limitation,” says Eldridge in an interview with American Art Collector. “Both the conscious and the unconscious are at work. The unconscious shows itself to me, and then my conscious mind takes it. The process of painting is a revelation that brings me [into the studio] every day.” The workings of Eldridge’s subconscious resonate deeply with collectors, the poetic assembly, reimagined archetypal references and evolving symbols a relief for the evolving mind.  

Below, Eldridge shares incite on new arrivals available at Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt, CO.

“But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. As a man is, so he sees.”

 –William Blake

I have one main purpose in painting – self-revelation – that involves an awareness of the movement of my psyche as it parallels the act of painting. It is my means of “conversing with Eternity,” in the words of William Blake.  While attending a show of Cy Twombly’s art at the Kunsthaus Museum in Zurich, there was the sense of receiving a transmission. On my return, the abstraction took over.

I do seem to work in series, and I welcomed a freedom with paint and imagery, after years of painting with great restraint on top of large vintage photographs. Each one of these paintings was a surprise to me. I would enter the field of diffuse awareness, and this other self – that seems to know exactly what colors to use and how to wield the brush – would take over. They all required returning to, many times, and still with a knowingness that allowed for each new layer. 

Alchemy

Features a large alchemical retort to purify certain materials where transmutations occur. A burst of energy explodes. Other symbols of change, the snake, the butterfly add to the power of transformation. And the bird cries out with the same message. 

It is Within
“… Surprised me with how dark she wanted to be for the beginning of the painting. Then a language of whites and pastels wanted to contradict the background. Birds, prayer beads, a car and a cleansing cloud all showed up, and they all spoke to each other.”

Fear Not
“To give a different kind of texture and intrigue, I laid down some ephemera – an image of an owl, a page of writing I found in Greece. I like the idea of palimpsest, layering unrelated materials that might find some synchronicity in the end.”