Elaine Ashburn
Briarcliff Manor, NY, United States
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Exhibition It all began at the recycling center in Hastings-on-Hudson. I noticed people leaving large objects—like old street lamps and antique velvet couches—outside the recycling bins. I was fascinated. To me they were beautiful objects that needed to be preserved. Since I couldn’t bring them home, I started taking pictures of everything I found: galoshes, angels, glass bottles, tattered tarot cards, and dusty jewelry. I was fixated and went back week after week for more.
I seemed to have developed an affinity for junk.
An advertising art director by trade, my Photoshop abilities were very good at the time, so I started making collages. Gradually, using my art school skills, the art history classes I snoozed through, and anything else I could conjure up, I discovered a pattern of interpretation and digital découpage was born.
I’m always on the lookout for the whimsical, the magical, the tarnished but beautiful, the poetic and painterly, the grasp of the obvious. An inspired day or a fleeting thought all blend into my mental mixmaster with a sprinkle of fantasy.
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