documenting process

Artist Statement

In my work, I bring a sensitivity to materials, form, and composition as a means for exploring the human condition. Seeking to create a sense of tension and equilibrium, I use intuitive and analytical processes that push and pull off of one another. Paintings become frenetic histories of raw emotions, sculptures capture and suspend moments in time, modular compositions are constructed and deconstructed to mimic our constant state of flux. There is a meditation to all of it.

Unbound to one medium, I shift ideas from painting and printmaking into sculpture, installation, and video. This approach allows me to respond to form and material from multiple vantage points and encourages me to work energetically and untethered to expectation.

Capturing and releasing time is a central theme in my work. I am interested in what happens when the intention of an object is not for it to last, but for it to evolve and shift over time. By exploring craft and therefore materials in this non-traditional way I find unexpected creative paths. In my studio, paper scraps and rejected prints are collected and find new purpose in cast paper sculptures. My cardboard sculptures are modular and can be reconfigured endlessly until ultimately they are sent to be recycled. In thinking about the ways I can repurpose and reuse materials in my shop I have inevitably started to think about how the materials are produced and distributed before arriving at my studio. I feel a sense of responsibility and reverence for the resources that are transformed into materials and then again transformed by my hands. This cycle connects me to time and place and is the guiding force in my life.

BIO

Eleanor Annand grew up on the southern coast of North Carolina, near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. In 2003 she received her Bachelors of Graphic Design from North Carolina State University, where she concentrated her studies on typography and letterpress. After a range of design and letterpress experience, from IBM to Yee-Haw Industries, she landed in the Core Fellowship program at Penland School of Craft. While in the Core Fellowship, Eleanor investigated printed, drawn, carved, and painted lines on paper, metal, and enamel. In 2012 she relocated to Asheville, NC, where she was co founder and creative director of 7 Ton Design and Letterpress Company. In the Fall of 2017 she returned to Penland School of Craft as a resident artist. As a resident she spent 3 years exploring the sculptural potential of paper by creating folded paper forms, cast paper, and cardboard installations. In 2020 she relocated her studio to Asheville, NC. Eleanor’s current work centers on the intersection of art and design. Using meditative processes as a catalyst for calming compositions, her work evokes a soothing visceral response. Over the past 10 years her work has been shown regionally, nationally, and internationally.