“I’ve always loved the Japanese art of kintsugi. It calls us to celebrate age, history, and the scars that life and time make upon everything and everyone. I embrace this as a way to think about ourselves, others, and our relationships as we age. It honors the inevitable imperfections of everything we see and might aspire to be, and represents the duality of fragility and strength, beauty and brokenness.” — Elisa Sheehan
Today we meet artist, Elisa Sheehan, who creates pieces that are both delicate and beautiful in their simplicity. The artist has truly found a way to show the beauty in the brokenness, and no matter her color palette, her pieces bring a sense of both delight and calmness to the viewer.
In this interview, Elisa shares with us about the Japanese art of kintsugi, the process of working with eggshells (including where she sources them), and what she enjoys the most about working on large-scale commissions.
Your work celebrates beauty in the broken with a combination of colors and shapes inspired by the world around us. When did you first discover the Japanese art of kintsugi?
Precisely. I can’t even recall when I first heard about the art of kintsugi, but it was many years ago. It was something that struck me as so deeply poignant and just a “truth.” One morning when I dropped and shattered an eggshell I’d been working on, the concept immediately came back to me and thus began this entire body of work!
Where do you source the eggshells that you work with?
All of the chicken eggshells come from caring and helpful friends and family who save them for me. The ostrich and emu eggshells come from farms across the United States.
Working with eggshells has to be a delicate process. Tell me about the process of creating one of your kitsugi pieces.
It really is! All of the eggshells are washed thoroughly and left to dry. I paint on the inside of each shell with various mediums. Sometimes they are tonal with just washes of color, sometimes they are very detailed with each looking like a miniature painting, and sometimes I’m going for texture. I typically work in two layout styles – grid and organic. Once the eggshells are painted to my satisfaction, I’ll start on the layout. The grids are as they sound and the organic layouts take on many forms but are more free-flowing, the eggshells are all shapes and sizes, and the works have a sense of movement. Lastly, I gild the eggshells with 23k gold leaf with “cracks” to represent the repairs similar to that of kintsugi.
How do you begin a typical day in the studio?
I’ll usually bring a cup of coffee into the studio and drink that near a window while I’m looking over the day and week’s tasks. If it’s a day when I’m working on a deadline or a specific commission, I’ll think about my order of operations for the day. If it’s a day to play in the studio, then I’ll let myself look around and see what speaks to me just to enjoy the process of trying something new.
You also create porcelain installations based on your kitsugi designs. How long does it take to create a commission for a large installation?
Yes, these have been such a fun addition to my work and took a few years to get right. I’m so glad to finally have them in a good place! They were born out of my desire to go bigger with my work. The eggshells are fragile so they must be framed and I’m constrained by maximum frame sizes in those instances. I longed to see them break free of their frames and cover entire walls, ceilings, wherever! The porcelain allows me to do just that and take on larger and more immersive installations. Because I’m creating the eggshell from scratch, it takes quite a bit longer than the actual eggshell work. There are also kiln firings and the actual installation to factor in as well.
What do you enjoy the most about taking on a larger-scale commission?
I just really love working large. I love the challenge that presents and just love how it looks to see hundreds of eggshells sprawling across a wall. Even in a frame, the repetition of so many smaller elements working together to create an impactful whole is something that just really works visually. I love using my whole body to work on a piece. That goes for paintings too. If I’m working on a large canvas, my whole arm and shoulder are involved, I may be starting the floor. There’s something that happens when you get more of your body involved that fires me up.
You recently created a large-scale piece titled, “All that Glitters” Tell me about the inspiration behind the piece and how long it took to create.
This was such a natural extension of my work. Over the years that I’ve created these eggshell works, every time I would frame them I felt like I was making a little jewelry box. The eggshells are often bright colors like jewels, they are delicate, and the frame just made them feel even more precious to me. The idea of a necklace was always with me and it was finally time to try. I also loved the idea of playing with a completely different layout than my usual work. Again, using so many tiny, delicate eggshells to create a very bold and strong-looking piece just works for me.
How do the color palettes differ from your eggshell pieces to your botanical art paintings?
They are so intertwined and related. I often think of my eggshell work as micro or deconstructed versions of my paintings. I often put them next to one another in my studio and they are definitely comprised of much of the same vocabulary of color, marks, and overall feeling.
You were featured in issue 36 of Create! magazine last year. How did it feel seeing your interview and the photographs of your work in print?
It was such an honor! I really love what Alicia and Kat do with that magazine and for artists. Alicia did such a fantastic job putting the article together. The thrill of seeing my work in print never fades. It’s exciting each and every time. It also provides a different perspective and a means of seeing what you do through others’ eyes and that has a lot of value in helping to understand that. We artists create in solitude so seeing your work in print and in the hands of a larger audience is fascinating.
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