Stemming from imagination and memory, I begin with many ink and gouache works on paper and cultivate the imagery into mixed media and oil paintings. The works toggle between transparency and opacity; they invite the viewer to the edge of knowing. I want the paintings evoke a temporal, twilight atmosphere where figures and their parts become shapes that interplay as the imagery shifts in and out of recognition. I relate to these paintings as landscapes; they are poetic spaces that both contain and become the body. Playfully, I enjoy manipulating the viewer into multiple readings of the quasi-representational forms. I paint on unstretched canvas directly on the wall and build the surface using acrylic, oils, graphite, and pastels, alternately layering and removing. The surfaces both reflect and pursue embodiment in all its ineffable, fleeting, absurd, or profound moments.

~ Georgia ELROD, 2024