ellen heck | figure to figure

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figure ellen heck

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figure to figure ellen heck

Collecting pieces from four projects that all depict human figures rendered by the same hand at different scales and with different materials has been an opportunity to examine some effects of format. At the start of a new series, I deliberately choose a medium, scale, and composition that seem most likely to create an environment that will answer the question of the project. These format choices, which are often linked to the content of the early pieces in the series, become conventions as the series progresses. As a project reaches a conclusion, it will also tend to push against some of those conventions sparking ideas and bringing up new questions—the seeds of the next series.

On the pages that follow are some of the questions, conclusions, and observations surrounding the four figure-focused bodies of work included in Figure to Figure

Ellen Heck

Opposite page: Ellen Heck in her studio

This page: Ava as Frida

Woodcut and drypoint, 2012

6 x 8 inch plate

at the well

The At the Well series, began as an inquiry carried out through master studies, but quickly merged with interest in placing complex math forms in a believable world. In this series, I re-examine Bouguereau’s La Cruche Cassée , a 19th century French portrait of a girl leaning against a well with a broken water pitcher at her feet. I have asked: What is it about this painting that has resonated with a large number of people? What role does the broken pitcher play in its appeal? How have vessels changed as metaphors for femininity throughout art history? Can the symbol be substituted with other openended or abstract mathematically derived forms?

Highlighting the vessel-like qualities of the Klein bottle, I have often replaced the broken pitcher with this new, complicated form. Other paintings in the series reconfigure the composition to create changed narratives, layer and reflect the composition on itself, replace the original girl with a series of different figures, and eventually replace the figure altogether with mathematical forms. The process of rendering these forms in two dimensions led to discoveries and questions about the fine line between the representational and the abstract. In the language of math, a Klein bottle is a “nonorientable surface with no boundary.” I like to think this could define a painting as well.

At the Well with a Klein Basket Oil on drypoint on panel, 2019 36 x 24 inches

Color Study of the Girl at the Well Oil and spray paint on panel, 2019 36 x 24 inches

A Piece of the Story Oil on panel and wood panels, 2019 36 x 24 inches

Oil on drypoint on panel, 2019 36 x 24 inches

Shreya at the Well with a New Shawl and a Klein Bottle

cassatt and caregiving

After a series of projects—both figurative and abstract—in which I’ve hoped to better understand the essence of an identity, a shared origin, or a culturally understood symbol by collecting images that are all linked to that concept, I’ve recently turned my attention towards the links themselves. They can be identity statements, equations, metaphors, or relationships, but it is these connections that support and create the meaning I am often looking for.

For this reason, I decided to focus on compositions with more than one figure. Revisiting the Plus A Century Portfolio , one of my first print projects inspired by Mary Cassatt’s color prints from the end of the 19th century, I have looked closely at Cassatt’s use of color, line, and pattern to create a similar esthetic with contemporary subjects. These prints, the plates for which I etched during a residency at Scuola Grafica in the spring of 2022, all focus on the relationship between a caregiver and a small child.

The

Bath

Woodcut, drypoint, aquatint, watercolor, 2022

13 x 10 1/2 inches

Opposite page: The Blue Room

Woodcut, drypoint, aquatint, watercolor, 2022

13 x 10 1/2 inches

Hand and Hand

Woodcut, drypoint, aquatint, watercolor, 2022

13 x 10 1/2 inches

Geppetto

Woodcut, drypoint, aquatint, watercolor, 2022

13 x 9 inches

The Garden Party

Woodcut, drypoint, aquatint, watercolor,2022

13 x 10 1/2 inches

The Family Room

Woodcut, drypoint, aquatint, watercolor, 2022

13 x 10 1/2 inches

heroic little moments

As the At the Well paintings have grown into a series of larger, brighter compositions combining forms from math balanced with abstracted natural imagery like flowers and vegetables, I also wanted to bring figures into this new space. I’ve been making print portraits of girls at the age of reason for a long time. As paintings, larger than life size, these scenes take on a specificity that their print versions universalize. I find myself wondering, “What important moment is being documented here? What discovery? Who is this great person?”

Grasshopper Oil on panel, 2023 36 x 48 inches

April

Oil on panel, 2022

40 x 30 inches

Green Room

Oil on panel, 2023

48 x 36 inches

Girl Wearing a Quartic

Surface as a Hat

Oil on panel, 2021

36 x 24 inches

Summer Shade

Oil on panel, 2022

48 x 36 inches

Elaine as Frida

Woodcut and drypoint, 2012

6 x 8 inch plate

forty fridas

A series of forty woodcut etchings depicting women and girls dressed up as painter and icon, Frida Kahlo, this project is an intimate collection of personal portraits that explores themes of identity, the multiple, individuality and variation. Borrowing a head-and-shoulders composition that Frida Kahlo often used for her own self-portraits, each of the Forty Fridas makes direct eye contact with the viewer.

My desire to balance saturated and muted colors led me to invert the woodcut color process over the course of the portfolio. Traditionally, color woodcuts are printed in the order of lightest to darkest. However, in order for saturated details like thin lines or patterns to show up as woodcut lines, I began printing very bright or dark under colors and spending the remaining woodcut layers softening them with opaque light layers that would produce muted third colors at the overlap. As the Fridas’ floral headpieces became more abstract through this process, they began to take on an almost psychological role.

Opposite page lrom left to right:

Anna, Nina, Amelia, Abigail, Chayito, Alana, Akemi, Karima, Catherine, Lydia, Jasmine and Emily as Frida

Woodcut and drypoint, 2012

6 x 8 inch plates

Poppy

Oil on panel, 2022 40 x 30 inches

Floral Arrangement

40 x 30 inches

Oil on panel, 2022

Cover image: Green Room , Oil on panel, 2023, 48 x 36 inches, see pg. 19

Inside cover, detail: Sophia as Frida , Woodcut and drypoint, 2012, 6 x 8 inch plate

Inside back cover, detail: Hand and Hand , #1 of 5, Woodcut, drypoint, aquatint, watercolor, 2022, 13 x 10 1/2 inches, see pg. 14

Back cover, detail: Piece of the Story , Oil on panel and wood panels, 2019, 36 x 24 inches, see pg. 9

Kathryn Schorr, owner/director

Wesley Ellis, gallery associate

Julie Musselman, gallery associate

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