Kathleen ElliotSculpture

Spring Cyclone, 2014, Glass, 24 x 9 x 10 inches

Blue Moon Cyclone2013Glass35 x 12 x 12 inches

Arctic Cyclone2014Glass25 x 9 x 9 inches

Dora’s Tumbleweed2014Glass17 x 10 x 10 inches

Pomegranate Pod2012Glass9 x 14 x 9 inches

Stealth2015Glass15 x 12 x 13 inches

When Plants and Animals Merge, Arctic Giraffe2013Glass27 x 6 x 14 inches

Offerings #2, Mehndi2013Glass, mixed media7 x 3 x 3 inches

Offerings #3, Silver Acorns2013Glass, mixed media 6 x 3 x 3 inches

Tumbleweed Before Its Tumble2011Glass6 x 9 x 6 inches

Under Some Sea Somewhere2014Glass19 x 14 x 11 inches

Meditation2013Glass, wood backing23 x 24 x 5 inches

Melons2014Glass, found cutting board10 x 16 x 4.5 inches

Nasty Tumbleweed2014Glass7 x 8 x 7 inches

Intimacy2014Glass7 x 7 x 3 inches

Questionable Foods #52015Glass, food packaging, artificial sinew, archival sealant23 x 12 x 11 inches

Questionable Foods #6, Papaya2015Glass, food packaging, artificial sinew, archival sealantSuspended17 x 22 x 22 inches

Questionable Food #22013Glass, soda cans, copper wire, archival sealant Wall mounted26 x 24 x 5 inches

Liberty #12015Glass, found birdcage23 x 11 x 11 inches

Liberty #22015Glass, found birdcage9.5 x 15 x 8 inches

Liberty #2 detail2015Glass, found birdcage9.5 x 15 x 8 inches

Offerings #12013Glass, carved magnolia branchWall mounted6 x 7 x 15 inches

Offerings #5 (beads)2013Glass, carved branch, threadWall mounted8 x 2.5 x 3 inches

Offerings #4 2013Glass, carved branchWall mounted10 x 4 x 3 inches

Offerings #6, Brent’s Kelp2014GlassWall mounted13 x 8 x 7 inches

Pepper Vine2014Glass18 x 5 inches

Scottsdale #12014Glass12 x 8 x 8 inches

Garnet Tumbleweed Before its Tumble 2011Glass8 x 12 x 8 inches

Tumbleweed with Buds2014Glass8 x 12 x 8 inches

The Conversation2015Glass7 x 3 x 4 inches

Commentary

Trained as a glass worker specializing in realistic renderings of natural forms, through her meticulous and detailed process, Elliot’s facsimiles of natural forms are highly detailed, precise and hyperrealistic. One might momentarily take them for the real thing, creating for the viewer a moment where nature and art fuse. Giving up no secret as to their making, Elliot’s realism remains an example of what anthropologists call the technology of enchantment.

Elliot pushed herself into more challenging terrain, to a realism devoted to recording in detail the precise appearance of plants that did not exist.

This change in her work is encapsulated by Homage to Castaneda (2007), and I Wonder Where Castaneda Landed (2007). The catalyst for change came when Elliot read an obituary of neo-shaman Carlos Castaneda (d. 1998), from whom Elliot received tutelage years earlier. Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan (1968) encouraged a generation to explore alternative medicine and new-age paths to enlightenment. It is almost as if, by thinking about Castaneda, Elliot decided to take on the mantle of an everyday shaman as a model for the creative artist (an idea accepted by many scholars).

Elliot’s recent works qualify as what storytellers call confabulations, mixtures of all manner of personal and cultural references creating syntheses of archetypal values. Many of these works also appear to be informed by whispers of personal feelings, or hints of beliefs about self-actualization. In this Elliot has embraced an element of ancient culture: the influence of natural aesthetics on human values.

Placing Elliot’s work in the history of recent art is challenging, in so far as she began in craft and has crossed over into art. What began as enchanted because of technique, now enchants because of the high degree of strangeness interjected into botanical form by a drive to allude to personal values and make statements about spiritual growth. Elliot’s aesthetic appears in line with the American transcendentalism of the poet Emily Dickinson or even the suburban lyricism of landscape mystic Charles Burchfield. While Elliot has not developed a didactic vocabulary of gestalt forms believed to convey particular feelings, as both Burchfield and even Kirchner did, her work is underscored by a desire to provide archetypal insight into the reality lying under the real.

– Robert Mahoney

Kathleen Elliot

Biography

Kathleen Elliot creates sculptures out of flameworked glass, using a vocabulary of botanical forms, including leaves, flowers, fruits and vines. Her work has moved from the representational to the imaginary, in which plant forms incorporate human characteristics and convey a sense of alternative realities.

Elliot was born in Akron, Ohio in 1958. Her family moved to California in 1960 and she grew up in Silicon Valley. She has engaged in an array of life experiences that shape her art. She lived in a hippy commune, had a seven-year career as a hairstylist and make-up artist, a second twelve-year career as an administrator, corporate manager, educator, and writer. She is a thirty-year student of philosophy, linguistics and business strategy. For ten years she participated in shamanic practices and ceremonies while studying A Course in Miracles, and received instruction from Carlos Castaneda and other spiritual leaders. With her ex-husband and current husband, Elliot has raised five children.

In 1991, an invitation from a friend to try glasswork in his garage paved the way to a new life. Elliot took to working with glass immediately, and began teaching herself the art of making glass beads, which she pursued for the next eight years. This introduction to flameworking, working with a torch directly on glass, was to serve as the basis for her future sculptural projects. Elliot took her first glassblowing workshop in 1996.

In 2001 Elliot left her business career to pursue being an artist. She attended Pilchuck Glass School in 2001, 2002 and 2003, studying with leading glass artists Laura Donefer, Robert Mickelsen, and Shane Fero, and returned in 2013 as an instructor. She takes art courses at De Anza College. Elliot’s work has been shown in museums, art centers and galleries throughout the U.S. She has won numerous awards, been written about in a variety of art publications, and her work is in several prominent collections including the permanent collection of the Oakland Museum of California, Premier Tom Marshall of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Weyerhauser collection, Mayor of Okayama, Japan, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ireland, among others. She served on the boards of the Glass Alliance of Northern California and the Bay Area Glass Institute. Elliot resides and operates her studio in Cupertino, California.

Kathleen Elliot

Artist Statement

What is real? How does one know? By pursuing studies of philosophy, linguistics and alternative spirituality, these two questions form the foundation of my work. I invite viewers to be surprised, to wonder, to question and reconsider, to embrace curiosity and uncertainty, for these are the moments in which we are most alive.

I work in series:Natural Botanicals are three-dimensional trompe l’oeil, in which a brittle manufactured material takes on the appearance of something organic and pliant. They celebrate the beauty of nature and its ability to lift us out of the commotion of everyday life that seems so urgent and important, reminding us we belong to mysteries far greater.

Imaginary Botanicals entice us out of the confines of our ordinary realities, into alternate realities where the unexpected can appear.

Questionable Foods pokes at us to be responsible for ourselves, to question what we are eating and what we call food, while challenging the food industry’s ethical obligations to consumers.

The Liberty series addresses moments in life, where we find ourselves trapped in cages, whether imposed upon us or of our own making, from the merely annoying to the painful and horrific. Some of us fortunately find opportunities to pull ourselves out and move into new realities.

Offerings are inspired by the teachings and mudras, spiritual hand gestures, of Buddha. This series of work invites us out of the “I want” culture, into the spiritual healing and peace generated through gratitude and generosity.

Kathleen Elliot

Resumé (Selected) (For full resumé go to: www.kathleenelliot.com/resume)

Solo Exhibitions2019 The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago, IL2018 Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA2017 McAllen International Museum of Art and Science, McAllen, TX San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler, AZ2016 Mills Gallery, Central College, Pella, IA Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts, Gadsden, AL2015 Biedenharn Museum and Gardens, Monroe, LA Franklin G. Burroughs – Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC Waterworks Visual Arts Center, Salisbury, NC2014 Founders Hall Art Gallery, Soka University, Aliso Viejo, CA “Beyond Art Selves,” The Armory Art Center, Montgomery Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL Meadows Museum of Art, Centenery College of Louisiana, Shreveport, LA2013 “Playing with Fire,” Ellen Noel Art Museum in Texas, Odessa, TX “Living Flame,” Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA “The Natural & The Imaginary,” Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI “Imaginary Botanicals,” Tenri Cultural Institute, New York, NY “Eden Revisited”, The Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science, Visual Arts Center, Sioux Falls, SD2012 “Eden Revisited,” Visual Arts Center of Northwest Florida, Panama City, FL “Art of the Organic,” University of Oregon, Cultural Forum, Eugene, OR “Eden Revisited,” Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL2009 “Playing with Fire,” Ariana Gallery, Royal Oak, MI Two-Person Exhibitions2014 Foosaner Art Museum, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL “Glass and Charcoal: The Art of Kathleen Elliot and Huguette Despault May,” Ringling College of Art and Design, Selby Gallery, Sarasota, FL2013 Mattie Kelly Arts Center, Northwest Florida State College, Niceville, FL “Playing with Fire,” Morris Museum, Morristow, NJ, exhibition with Paul Stankard “A Continuous Mark,” The Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, Lafayette, LA Group Exhibitions2016 “Resonance and Memory: The Essence of Landscape”, Michelson Museum of Art, Marshall, TX2015 “Kathleen Elliot Presents”, Empire Seven Studios, San Jose, CA “Mooncakes, Churros, and Cherry Pie”, Euphrat Museum, Curator Diana Argabrite, Cupertino, CA2014 “Resonance and Memory: The Essence of Landscape”, Elga Wimmer PC, New York, NY, Curator, Robert Curcio2013 “Visions, The Next 50 Years, 41st Annual International Glass Invitational,” Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, MI2012 “Playing with Fire, Artists of the California Studio Glass Movement”, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA “Playing with Fire,” Philabaum Glass Gallery, Tucson, AZ2011 “Incendiary Dreams,” Hodgell Gallery, Sarasota, FL. Curator, Robert Mickelsen “The Nature of Glass,” Schack Art Center, Everett, WA. Curators, William and Sarah Traver2010 “COLD+HOT,” Micaela Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Curator, Micaela Van Zwoll “Colour,” Hodgell Gallery, Sarasota, FL. Curator, Laura Donefer “Glass Jewelry: An International Passion for Design,” Kentuck Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY2009 “2009 Statewide Drawing and Print Competition & Exhibition,” Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA “Feminine Essence,” Judy Youens Gallery, Santa Fe, NM “UrbanGlass Gala Auction,” Brooklyn, NY “Momentum,” Art Object Gallery, San Jose, CA “Bay Area Annual,” Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA. Juror’s Award2008 “SOFA,” Chicago, IL, 2005 - 2008 “Bay Area Glass Sculpture,” Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco, CA “Unbreakables,” Cabrillo College Gallery, Aptos, CA “Glass In The Community,” City Windows Gallery, San Jose, CA

EducationGlass Art Seminar with Paul Stankard, John Burton Program, January – May, 2010Center for Cultural Innovation, San Jose, CA, October – November 2008, Business of ArtPilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA, July 2003, Flameworking Survey with Shane FeroPilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA, July 2002, Skin Deep: The Flameworked Surface with Robert MickelsenPilchuck Glass School, Seattle WA, July 2001, Beginning Glassblowing with Laura DoneferInternational Society of Glass Beadmakers, Boulder, CO, May 2001, Gathering: Various Demo Artists and LecturersDe Anza College and Foothill College, Cupertino, CA 2000 – 2015, Sculpture, Drawing, Art HistorySan Jose State University, San Jose, CA, December 1996, Beginning GlassblowingThe AJI Network, Los Altos, CA, 1992 – Present, Business Professionals Course, LEIP ProgramLogonet, Inc./Business Design Associates, Berkeley, CA, 1985 – 1992, Ontological Design Course

Kathleen Elliot

Exhibition Fact SheetKathleen Elliot

Exhibition Description

The art of California-based artist Kathleen Elliot asks us to consider nature in a new light. Leaves, fruits, flowers, pods and vines are translated into flameworked glass. And through the very accuracy of her botanical forms, a parallel rending is also taking place: the organic is transposed into the domain of the imaginable, where natural forms appear in unexpected colors and in fantastic, new combinations. On view, will be approximately 25 flameworked glass sculptures making up four series within Elliot’s body of work. These series address such issues as society’s connections with the natural world, what constitutes spiritual necessity and fulfillment in contemporary culture; as well as the food industry’s ethical obligations to consumers.

NUMBER OF OBJECTS: 29 glass and mixed media sculptures; images provided on the pdf presentation.

SPACE REQUIREMENTS: Dependent upon the size and amount of works chosen, from 1500 up to 2000 square feet. PARTICIPATION FEE: Round-trip shipping, wall-to-wall insurance (50% of retail value), and color exhibition announcement card (with a $200 production allowance from Katharine T. Carter & Associates.) INSTALLATION: Instructions will be included with exhibition details.

TRANSPORTATION: The exhibiting institution will provide all transportation for the exhibition and cover all related costs. This will include full responsibility for delivery at the conclusion of the exhibition. Work must be fully insured during transport.

ANNOUNCEMENT CARDS: Katharine T. Carter & Associates will provide a $200 production allowance towards the production of a color announcement card pending the terms from the sample letter of confirmation.

PRESS KIT: All pre-written press materials, to include biographical summary, artist statement, petite essay, press releases, media releases, pitch letters and e-release/radio/television spots, to be provided by Katharine T. Carter & Associates. All publicity releases, invitations/ announcements, catalog, exhibition brochure, and other printed materials concerning the exhibition shall carry the following infor- mation: “The exhibition was organized through Katharine T. Carter & Associates.” Copies of any printed matter relating to the exhibition shall be sent to Katharine T. Carter & Associates at the close of the exhibition. The critics’ essay may be quoted provided there is attribution.

CONDITIONS:

CANCELLATION:

1. Exhibiting institution must provide object insurance to cover replacement costs should items be damaged or stolen while on premises. Minimum insurance required: 50% retail value. Should loss, damage or deterioration be noted at the time of delivery of the exhibition, the artist shall be notified imediately. If any damage appears to have taken place during the exhibi-tion, the artist shall be informed immediately.2. Security: Objects must be maintained in a fireproof building under 24-hour security.3. All packing and unpacking instructions sent by (artist) shall be followed explicitly by competent packers. Each object shall be handled with special care at all times to ensure against damage or deterioration. 4. As stated above (see space requirements), the number of works to be exhibited can be dictated by the space and needs of the exhibiting institution. 5. Exhibitors may permit photographs of the exhibition and its contents for routine publicity and educational purposes only.Exceptions may be made pending discussion with the artist.

Any cancellation of this exhibition by the hosting institution, not caused by the actions of the artist, shall entitle Katharine T. Carter and Associates to an award of liquidated damages of $3750.00. The hosting institution further agrees that any suit brought to recover said damages may only be brought in Columbia County, New York.

Contact and additional information:

Katharine T. CarterKatharine T. Carter & Associates518-758-8130 fax 518-758-8133ktc@ktcassoc.com

P. O. Box 609Kinderhook, NY 12106-0609

Exhibition Fact SheetKathleen Elliot

For exhibition inquiries contact Katharine T. Carter & Associates

Email: ktc@ktcassoc.com

Phone: 518-758-8130

Fax: 518-758-8133 Mailing Address:

Post Office Box 609Kinderhook, NY 12106-0609

Website: http://www.ktcassoc.com