nina elder

I met Nina Elder a few times in Taos, NM through mutual friends and had no idea she was such an amazing painter! I ended up seeing her work at her house last week and was speechless. (I think I ended up saying something ridiculous like "Your brain is so weird!!... How do you do this?!) Not only is her use of color incredible, but she does all of this insane line work by hand- even getting right up close to the canvas you can barely see a brush mark! One word definitely comes to mind, this girl has PATIENCE! I love art that I describe as obsessive (that is a compliment!) I love seeing people work on the same piece for months, when for most people it would become completely monotonous (like drawing blades of grass one by one! Crazy!) She told me that she used to sleep about 4 hours a night and stay up late painting. I love that! I think that the content of her work is best explained in her own words from her website.

"Through the vernacular of landscape painting, and using parking lots, highways, ore piles, factories, and junk heaps as my source material, I explore the delineation between land and landscape, beauty and banality. I approach the world through the trifocal lens of artist, environmentalist, and self-conscious consumer. My artistic inquiry responds to the legacy of friction between humanity and the natural world."

 

This is a drawing not a photograph!