ELIZABETH ALLEY
Please don't leave anything behind
Jeanine Jablonski and Cedar Lorca Nordbye, Curators
Elizabeth Alley was born in Memphis, TN, and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Memphis. In addition to being an artist, she is Director of Public Art at the UrbanArt Commission and pivot for the Legion of Zoom of the Memphis Roller Derby League.
She also sketches, makes lists, reads, shows her paintings regularly at Perry Nicole Fine Art, and most recently created the artwork for the 2007 Memphis in May Fine Art Poster honoring Spain.
Artist Statement
Ordinarily my paintings are informed by the people and places most familiar to me – family and friends, or interesting shadows on old Memphis buildings. For this exhibit I stepped out of my comfort zone to offer viewers an exploration of unfamiliar territory. By depicting the small details and intense colors of a foreign country, and by portraying an audacious segment of society, these paintings feel a little off-balance and suspect.
The way I’ve painted them, with acrylic and a little bit of oil on gessoed paper, as opposed to oil on canvas, forced less time and obsession spent on each image, and allows for a focus on the whole, rather than the individual pieces.