DRAWN

by Elizabeth Lide

During a three-week artist residency at MASS MoCA in October 2018, I made 20 drawings on handmade paper from Twinrocker. In preparation for the residency, I chose small papers that would fit safely in my carry-on suitcase and packed art materials in a cardboard box. Paul, Emma Ming, and I flew to Albany, New York and then drove in a rental car to North Adams. Together we saw as much of MASS MoCA as we could in three days and when they flew back to Atlanta, I moved into my studio and apartment to begin my residency. At that time, I had no idea that I would make an installation of drawings and sound; but, thankfully, Paul, who never travels without his recording equipment, collected sound on the trip. What began as a materials and transportation challenge ultimately set-up a framework in which I worked for the next two years.

DRAWN is an installation of 100+ drawings and objects, made from October 2018 through September 2020, during residencies at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts; Moulin à Nef, VCCA-France in Auvillar, France; The Hambidge Center; as well as in my Atlanta studio, before and during the pandemic. Paul Kayhart recorded sound in each of these locations; viewers can initiate listening to his 40-minute composition loop.

My immediate surroundings, as well as the uncertainty unfolding outside of the security of each place, influenced my approach to the drawings. All are made on handmade papers, approximately the same size, easily transportable for traveling to the residencies. For consistency, I used watercolors, inks, graphite, and gesso in all locations but gathered site-specific materials (eggshells, human hair, chicken wishbones, studio fragments) incorporating them in the drawings and installation. The drawings are repositories for color and mood, visual journals of my time in each place, each studio, each new living situation with artists I did not know, as well as living in virtual isolation with my family.

To view more of Elizabeth’s work, visit her website.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Elizabeth Lide creates meditative drawings, objects, and installations that explore the contradictions in accumulation and the making of multiples, the distillation of surroundings into shapes and grids as repositories for color and mood, and the placement of ordinary objects in new contexts.

She has been awarded residences at Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France; MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA; MacDowell in Peterborough, NH; Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA); The Hambidge Centerin Rabun Gap, GA; Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Ireland; and with The University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art in Cortona, Italy. She was the recipient of a Working Artist Project Fellowship from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA), selected by Saisha M. Grayson, Assistant Curator at the Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.

Her solo exhibitions have included MOCA GA, The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, The Arts Festival of Atlanta, LaMama in New York City, SECCA in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Window-on-Gaines in Tallahassee, Florida. Her work has been shown in 90+ group exhibitions including The Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC; Athens Institute of Contemporary Art in Athens, Georgia; Whitespace Gallery; MOCA GA; The High Museum of Art; The Swan Coach House; Carlos Museum at Emory University; A.I.R. Gallery in New York City; Atlanta College of Art; University of Maryland; Eyedrum; Carlsberg Glytotek Museum in Copenhagen; The Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design Gallery at Georgia State University; The Upstairs in Tryon, North Carolina; Brenau College; and The Chautauqua Exhibition of American Art in Chautauqua, New York.

Her artists’ books have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art, The University of Damascus, The University of North Carolina, Duke University, Emory University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Iowa, The ACA Library at SCAD, Ruth and Marvin Sackner Collection, North Carolina Writers’ Network, and Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Her drawings are in collections at The High Museum of Art, MOCA GA, and in numerous private collections.

She has been a graphic and package designer for the industrial designer Raymond Loewy in New York City and design director of Art Papers magazine. She has taught art as an adjunct professor at The Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design at Georgia State University, Atlanta College of Art, and Agnes Scott College; and as an art teacher at The Paideia School.

Elizabeth is a native of Winston-Salem and has a BFA from Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia and an MFA from Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design at Georgia State University. She is represented by Whitespace in Atlanta.