mnartists.org: Gabriele Ellertson

Heads on Sticks #3, mixed media on X-Ray, mounted on paper 30x22", 1996

Gabriele Ellertson — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:37:06 GMT

Velocity Mapping, ink on linen paper 10x10", 2002

Gabriele Ellertson — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:30:04 GMT

From a series of drawings on Mary Hark flax paper, especially designed to look like the dura mater. Velocity mapping is a relatively new technique to show what is going on inside the body. Radiologists spend years learning to de-code the images, just as artists spend years learning to draw, decoding interior structures, or to play an instrument, de-coding what a musician has written on the paper. I am trying to make visible what technology has as yet not been able to record on a photographic plate: the creative process in action. This drawing is pure invention, with no base in reality.

"It's the Line, Stupid", mixed media on linen paper 10x10", 2002

Gabriele Ellertson — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:29:50 GMT

To paraphrase Larry Rivers: "Before a drawing is a portrait, a landscape or Washington crossing the Delaware, a drawing is a bunch of lines on a piece of paper". For beginners the imitating function of line is paramount. Line has so much work to do. Apart from its discriptive function it has to divide the available space and to transmit the correct emotional quality for the image. Hence the title: "It's the Line, Stupid!" This is a boring little box, drawn with blunt, boring lines. It does not need high drama; that would give the wrong message. The box is drawn as if it were an x-ray of a box, which links it to the other drawings in this series.

Swollen Head, Swollen Box

Gabriele Ellertson — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:29:37 GMT

FALX on FLAX, mixed media on linen paper 10x10", 2002

Gabriele Ellertson — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:29:13 GMT

FALX is an imaging technique; as luck would have it it uses the same letters as the fibers, flax, of which the paper is made. The "paint" is carborundum, suspended in acrylic medium. It feels like sandpaper and reflects the light in unpredictable patterns (impossible to photograph correctly).

Head in a Box

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:35:23 GMT

"what is it?" Mixed media on linen paper, 10x191/2", 2002

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:35:06 GMT

full title: "What is it?" "It's Beethoven with a stick" (The music notation is a part of a Beethoven manuscript, drawn as if he had worked with his cane.)

Code #1

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:34:38 GMT

The cerebral cortex, the "gray matter", is covered by a protective skin called the dura mater, which roughly translates as "tough mother". Mary Hark's flax paper, especially commissioned for these drawings, looks like this skin. These drawings depict abbreviated medical diagnostic images of the human body, including the brain, seeking to decipher the body from the inside out. Just as it takes a trained musician to decode musical notation, it takes a trained specialist to "read" the information contained in an MRI or CT scan.

Ultrasound (Bladder), Caput Mortuum red earth pigment

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:34:24 GMT

The barn interior stands in for the human interior. The light glimmer passages imitate the ultrasound printout and suggest cobwebs in the rafters

Widespread Emphysema (Davis Gray earth pigments) on canvas 50x60", 1999

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:34:10 GMT

The inside of a ribcage has the appearance of the inside of a barn roof; ribs are much like rafters. I am still trying to show the human body from the inside, rather than its outer surface. The slide was not scanned in from the wrong side. Idid not want to draw too much attention to words in the drawing/painting.

Tiny Lounger (Amity)

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:33:56 GMT

detail of Dextrocardiogram (Yellow Ochre)

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:33:42 GMT

Dextrocardiogram (Yellow Ochre), drawn/painted on canvas 50x60", 1999

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:33:28 GMT

Property of the Weisman Museum of Art

detail of MRI-Head (Red Earth)

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:33:15 GMT

MRI-Head (Red Earth)

Gabriele Ellertson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:33:01 GMT

Each canvas in this series is painted/drawn in a closely related family of earth pigments, red ochres in this case. The pigments were collected (not by me) all over the earth. The light image in the background is based on an MRI of the head. Property of Dr. and Mrs. Buhr, Valley City, ND