Now on Display
Dodd Creek and Other Places: Work by Molly Elkind
Molly Elkind
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Artist Reception
Thursday, September 10
6-8 pm
Swilley Library lower level
Biographical Sketch
Molly earned an MA in Studio Art, with a concentration in Fibers, from the University of Louisville in 2002. Her mixed media embroideries, handmade paper sculptures, wall hangings, collages, and artist’s books have been exhibited in juried shows locally and nationally, and she has been published in Arts Across Kentucky, Needlearts, and SAQA Journal magazines. Molly’s work is in several private collections. Honors and awards include a grant in 2002 from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and in 2000 the Norman Kohlhepp Prize from the Louisville Visual Arts Association at the Water Tower Annual.
Molly also holds a B.A. and M.A. in English and has twenty-five years of experience teaching students of all ages. She has taught art workshops and professional development sessions in schools, museums, community art centers, and in private classes since 1999. She happily accepts commissioned projects and also does liturgical artwork.
Artist Statement
My work is often inspired by the beauty of the natural world. In my embroideries I choose one motif—stars, or trees, or a streambed—and seek to convey my own emotional response rather than realistic detail.
I have used the same approach in my series Ways of Looking at Dodd Creek. These pieces were inspired by hikes I took along Dodd Creek to Raven Cliffs Falls in north Georgia. As in Wallace Stevens’ poem 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, in the Dodd Creek series I am experimenting with varied ways of interpreting the same subject. At first I am mesmerized by the flowing water itself. In later pieces I look at other elements in the Dodd Creek ecosystem and consider how the water eventually flows into our own kitchens. I stitched the bead embroidery on fabric printed with my digital images of Dodd Creek and its environs. Like many of us, my day-to-day life is organized by the items in my to-do list and the schedule in my planner. I am not the first observer to realize, while watching the flowing water in the creek and the endless rush of water in the falls, that time flows without my help and outside my control. Weeks, days, hours and minutes are arbitrary divisions that offer us only the illusion of control. My hope is that I’ve created work that invites the viewer into a moment in which the ongoing rush of time is suspended, a moment of visual enjoyment and contemplation, much as I experience on my hikes and while stitching.
My latest series, Six Sketches, leaves behind specific scenes and places and takes the elements of my fiber process--piecing, mark-making and embroidering--as a subject. Cutting up cloth only to sew it together again, smearing it with ashes and paint, embellishing with beads or gold thread—these are for me acts of meditation. They embody what many of us seek to do in our daily lives, repairing, brightening, seeking unity amid dirt, chaos and brokenness.
Artist Contact Information
Molly Elkind
www.mollyelkind.com
mpelkind@comcast.net
About the Brown Art Gallery
Included in the original plans for the Monroe F. Swilley Jr. Library was a space designed specifically for art exhibits. The area was a gift of the Elizabeth Grisham Brown Benevolent Fund. Mrs. Brown (1826-1896) was the wife of Joseph Emerson Brown, Georgia Governor, Chief Justice, and United States Senator. She was recognized for her untiring energy and charitable work.With the recent renovation of the lower level of the library, the gallery was moved and altered to fit its new space. It re-opened on August 28, 2003 with a spectacular exhibit of Pfizer Pharmaceutical company paintings, "The History of Pharmacy," in honor of the Southern School of Pharmacy's Centennial Celebration and the opening of the lower level of the library.
To schedule future art exhibits, contact Angela Beavers 678-547-6280 or email beavers_ad@mercer.edu.
The Brown Art Gallery is open during regular operating hours.