Visiting Artist Elizabeth Condon

Visiting Artist Elizabeth Condon came to speak on Oct. 11th at 7pm in Callicott Auditorium. She was born in LA and now lives and works from both Tampa, Florida and NY. I was not able to attend the lecture. I viewed the recording of it. I am sorry I missed seeing her work on the big screen, but I'm not sorry about the actual lecture. She spoke what felt like a really long time. Just showing each work and describing it. She has so much work it felt like an overload of information. I was not bored visually but a little by what she talked about.

Although what interested me most was her work early on in the lecture. She kept using the word kitsch to describe the series of dolls. They were not just regular dolls. They had an eerie look to them. She briefly mentioned. That she painted the dolls to describe her childhood. To get to know the dolls better by painting. She said that when she was young she did not speak until the age of 4. Until she spoke she just played with dolls all the time. I would have liked it if she had gone into more detail about her not speaking. I'm not sure if it was something bad that happened to her causing her to not speak, if it was medical, or if it was by choice. I felt like that work was the most beautiful and strongest of everything I saw of hers.

Her other work was inspired from her travels around the US and Asia. She has a technique where she pours her paints on to the canvas and then works from those shapes letting the shapes build her landscape. I thought that was a interesting way to paint. It allows her to be creative and troubleshoot her next most not allowing herself to always be in control. Condon's most recent painting she is working on are influenced by the 60s and 70s from when she was growing up. She is looking at architecture that is still around from when she was young and also night clubs.


Here is the only image of her dolls that I could find on the internet. It isn't from what she showed in the lecture but still has that dark and eerie vibe that I liked from the ones she did show.