Work to be sent to show in Hong Kong!

I've just been informed that 8 of my paintings have been purchased and will be in a painting show in Hong Kong! I'm so very excited and grateful, and cannot wait to find out more about when the show will take place.
Here are the paintings that they purchased...

"Coyote & Crow", 2012, 60" x 60", Oil on Canvas

"Male Reborn" & "Female Reborn", 2011, 36" x 24" Oil on Panel

 "Cicada" & "NYC", 2011, QR Code Audio Panels

"Male" & "Female", 2011, 36" x 24" Oil on Panel

Coyote & Crow

"Coyote and Crow" Diptych, Each 60" x 60", Oil on Canvas

Here's the finished Coyote and Crow painting I've been working on!

"Coyote" 60 x 60", Oil on Canvas, by Elise Mesnard

"Crow" 60 x 60", Oil on Canvas, by Elise Mesnard

Check out the preliminary stages here:
http://elisemesnard.blogspot.com/2012/05/coyote-and-crow-diptych-on-trickster.html

A Study in Abstraction & Dante's Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) by Elise Mesnard

Inferno,  30x 40"
Acrylic, Twine, and Plaster on Canvas

Purgatorio,  30x 40"
Acrylic, Twine, and Plaster on Canvas

Paradiso,  30x 40"
Acrylic, Twine, and Plaster on Canvas

Fantastically invigorating project, I hope to create more like them in the future. Inspired by Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedies (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso).

Cheers,

 Elise Mesnard

The Alchemical Base (Tria Prima)

According to Paracelsus, the Three Primes (Tria Prima) are: 
-Salt (base matter) 
-Sulfur (omnipresent spirit of life) & 
-Mercury (fluid connection between the High and the Low)

Salt, Sulphur, & Mercury
Oil on Canvas
Each Panel 60" x 24"

I absolutely loved this series, and plan to do more in the future.




Till then, 
~Elise Mesnard

Coyote and Crow, a Diptych

My newest series Coyote and Crow creates a diptych with larger than life figures, inspired by Native American shamans embodying the god or spirit they wished to invoke. Coyote and Crow were both trickster spirits who brought misfortune to the humans through their play but also acted as a balancing act in relation to the other gods. As Coyote and Crow are both very cunning they naturally fought quite a bit against one another. In the diptych, I show the heated gaze between the two and have placed them in an otherworldly atmosphere in which the shaman would enter to cross the bridge between the unseen divine in nature and the physical mundanity of our existence.

The completed images shown here are preparatory drawings for the Coyote and Crow paintings, I feel that drawing them out and fully working on the problems within placement, composition and rendering- helps me better carry out the final painting (which is on two 5' x 5' canvases, as opposed to the drawings, which were only 4' x 4')

Crow (Left) and Coyote (Right)
 Conte and Charcoal with Gesso on Panel, 48" x 48" each

"Crow" Underpainting

Starting the "Coyote" underpainting

"Coyote" figure portion of the underpainting almost complete!

Getting to work on the paintings, wish me well!

xox Elise Mesnard

Alchemy Series

Started working on my new series on the pseudo-science of alchemy in its old-world medicinal setting. Originally inspired by the Plague Doctor, for each painting I have an herb associated with the old practices of medicine or with alchemy or witchcraft in general. Left is Mugwort, center is Belladonna, and right is Datura. Then I have the three base component alchemical symbols, Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. And at the bottom I have a representational object- A mortar and pestle, an animal's skull, and a rounded glass vial. 

Working on Belladonna

"Genius"

The author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some large topics. Her next fascination: genius, and how we ruin it. Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It is a witty, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

Phenomenal performance piece by Oliver de Sagazan.


I found it extremely inspirational. It is as though he is a modern day shaman, descending into the unknown depths of not only the primal psyche, but also madness.

Cicada Series: A Reflection on Metamorphosis and Modernity

Female
Oil on Panel

Male
Oil on Panel

Female Reborn
Oil on Pane

Male Reborn
Oil on Panel

Concept

            The buzz of the cicada has always been a subtle soundtrack to my life’s growth in the south. This complex rhythmic symphony can seem overwhelming at times, especially for those unaccustomed to the sheer density of sound that such a chorus can reach. The same can be said for bustling metropolitan areas of major cities such as New York. Using contacts in both rural Texas as well as downtown New York City, I was able to receive recordings of each locations distinct heartbeat. For those accustomed to the south, the cry of the cicada at night when much of the world is quiet is the very essence of nature in the hot summer months. Whereas those in New York or any other major city can feel the pulse of their metropolis through the cacophony of sounds produced by the inhabitants therein.

            It is with this project that I was able to explore the idea of the nature, which we all come from, to the technologically advanced civilization we have metamorphosed into. Through the powerful medium of sound, I have aimed to place two sounds that can both be considered beautiful and irritating up against one another. Though they appear to be contrasting, they are two sides of the world many of us know— that of the natural, and that of the technological. This installation also aims to show the idea of a conceptual metamorphosis through the medium of the figure and cicada, displaying a kind of pseudo history of growth, from nature to modernity.

Nature is the exoskeleton from which we all originate;

shedding it to different degrees as we attend the metamorphosis of modernity. 

  

Cicada
Oil on Panel
(center button plays cicada hum sound clip)

 

New York
Oil on Panel
(center button plays busy downtown sound clip)

Mánagarm, Moon Hound

"Mánagarm" the Moon Hound
Graphite on Paper

     One of the Fenris Wolf's offspring, Mánagarm, also called Hati Hróðvitnisson. Its sibling is Sköll which chases the sun just as Mánagarm chases the moon. At Ragnarok they will devour the heavenly bodies and Fenrir will break his bonds and devour Odin.