ELLEN LEVINE DODD “Travel has been an inspiration for my paintings.” says painter Ellen Levine-Dodd, new to the Industrial Center Building. Often I’ve found subjects for my painting while on a road trip. I’m fascinated with the passage of time and how the motion of travel changes the images before me. My paintings are brightly colored memories of places I have been, feelings I have had, and dreams of places I will go. “Throughout my travels I’ve kept colored pencil journals and shot thousands of digital images as a means for capturing my journey. As the scenery slides by my open window, I find myself hypnotized by the motion of the road. I collect images to tell the story of where I’ve been. When I get back into the studio I reminisce in color. “I paint in casein because the medium lends itself to layering paint over paint and allows for scratching back into the surface. This process is analogous, for me, to the way life layers one experience over another and reminiscent of the way we learn life’s lessons by scratching into the surface of our experience.” Ellen has degrees in painting and photography. She has worked in several media, including papermaking, wood and photography. The style of her earlier handmade paper paintings evolved into her more boldly colored works in casein. Landscape is the vehicle she uses to paint her true subject, color. “I paint what most people don’t really notice in nature: wind, heat, the color behind the color. I want people to think about these things. That’s why I call my paintings mindscapes.” Her paintings are bold expressionistic color in the shape of mountains and mesas, bays and rivers.
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