Arkansas artist Elizabeth Weber will present her exhibit, The Wooded Path, at the University of the Ozarks’ Stephens Gallery through Nov. 6 as part of the University’s Artist of the Month Series.
There will be a reception to meet the artist from 5-6 p.m. on Nov. 6 in the gallery, located in the Walton Fine Arts Center. The gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday and there is no cost for admission.
Weber said the inspiration behind The Wooded Path stems from playing in the woods behind her house as a child.
“I spent most of my childhood in the woods behind our house,” she said. “I could climb trees faster than my older brothers and had a favorite reading and napping tree where I would sit, nestled on a branch. I knew the skin of that tree, that branch, like my own. Was comforted by the smell of the sun soaking into it. I felt closer to that tree than any person I knew. It was my safe place. In the summer I would run all day in those woods, free from the confines of school and walls. I would eat wild raspberries and blackberries and savor the tart sweetness of wild sumac. The fall found me lying on top of the enormous leaf piles the city dumped out there. I learned the difference between the smell of fresh leaves and old leaves, wet and dry, cold and sun soaked. Winter found me tracking the footprints of rabbits, crawling through thicket, running across open spaces, searching for the dark warm places the wild things go to withdraw and rest. I would hollow out spots in snowbanks, nestle in and sleep. Feasted on snow banquets and savored the secrets that were whispered as an icicle melted in my mouth. In the spring I loved walking along the creek listening to the water stories it told. Tales of freezes, trickles, and thaws as it scrambled across and around rocks and sticks on its way to its next adventure after awaking in its bed.”
Weber said her artworks “come from that space of knowing from deep within that seasons have important work in the earth and in ourselves.”
“The importance of polarity; that you can’t experience light without having lived through darkness. That need to cocoon, close oneself off from the noise and influence of everything around you to metamorph, and to emerge changed and more beautiful for having surrendered to it. In my paintings I start from blackness. In this way, I can reach deep inside that internal space to pull what is trying to emerge out. Allow it to crack open the black space and emerge in brilliant light. The process of transfiguration. In my sculptures I start from that space that provides the darkness, the shelter. The space that allows the transformation, the metamorphosis, the shedding, so that new growth and change can happen. Exploring the process of transmutation. These works come from that space of knowing the woods intimately. Both the external forests and the ones that grow within me where my shadows reside. The knowing that silence is not always quiet. The space of reflection. The space of wonder and transformation.”
Weber was born in upstate New York, where she grew up exploring the woods, camping, and spending time alone among the trees. This love of nature led her to choose to attend SUNY New Paltz College over other larger universities. Set within the Shawangunk Mountains, she spent her free time rock climbing, hiking, amateur cave exploring, and jumping into ice cold swimming holes. Upon graduating with a BS in visual and fine arts, she moved to Los Angeles, Calif., near the Santa Monica Mountains. Weber continued to hike and explore nature in her free time, including the ocean, through surf boards, kayaks, and scuba gear. During her time there, she created in ceramics and paint, switching from working in oils to acrylics. She also became friends with award winning playwright Layon Gray and designed and painted sets for several of his plays.
Weber moved to Arkansas in 2006, where she began to expand her art practice, showing her works throughout the state and across the country. Her exhibition list spans from New York to California, as well as Italy. In 2016, Weber bought her first home, creating a personal sanctuary space filled with areas for quiet contemplation throughout the property, surrounded by wild spaces. She has a dedicated painting studio, sculpture studio, textile workspace, writing room, as well as large area to work on larger pieces. These new spaces to work have allowed her to begin to explore and create the many sculptural pieces that she has always wanted to bring from sketchbook to tangibility. Her love of nature has guided the direction, and often the materials themselves, in the body of sculptural work.
Weber recently had a solo museum exhibition at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum. In addition to her home studio, her works can be found at Justus Fine Art in Hot Springs, Ark., and Gallery 26 in Little Rock, Ark.
Topics: Art