Ellen Shattuck
GO! Selectee 2007

The phrase “domestic arts” takes on new meaning in the work of Ellen Shattuck. While that phrase conjures up a vision of tranquil perfection, Shattuck’s work exposes a truth more familiar to many mothers: homemaking is code for “organized chaos.” In the midst of chaos, emotions run high.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

The crazy-making of living with and raising small children is the subject of my work.  I am a stay-at-home mom.  I work on a small scale at the kitchen table.  My boys’ nap-time is my time to fantasize and to enter a parenting fantasy-land, where I am free to be spiteful, self-pitying, violent and selfish:  emotions that generally run contrary to motherhood.  The obsessive thinking regarding a newborn’s eating, sleeping and breathing, and the repetition of daily routine is represented by intricate patterning and compositions that have little breathing room.  Figures, who are portrayed as overwhelmed or vengeful in the “loving” act of preparing food, battle with human-sized kitchen utensils.  These representations are at odds with the generally recognized ideals of 21st Century American homemaking.

I am drawn to the modest and traditional medium of printmaking but work to push beyond its formal boundaries.  Relief carvings are the foundation of my custom wallpaper.  My design is based on 18th Century toile textiles which are the perfect world to express the duality of domesticity.  The beatific scenes of leisure, wealth and endless happy days speak to the expectation of mothers today, who are often told how quickly their children will grow up, and commanded by strangers to enjoy them.  In my wallpaper, the pleasant garden scenes have been replaced with work:  laundry, nursing, expressing breastmilk, dishes, feeding, and cooking.  These images repeat themselves and, in doing so, convey the never-ending pattern of childcare.

I discovered that contact paper (the sticky paper in my kitchen drawers) was a great material for making stencils.  The material comes in a fake blonde wood which is curiously close to a flesh tone and, when anthropomorphized, further propagates my fear that I am becoming my kitchen.

ARTIST BIO

Shattuck grew up in Rutland, Vermont.  She graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a B.A. in Art and Women’s Studies and received an MFA from York University in Toronto.  Her work has been exhibited in Ontario, Vermont, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Wisconsin and New York.  She lives with her husband and two boys in Boston.

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Step Up 08
A Series Of Up To Six Exhibitions For Emerging Artists

STEP UP is a series of solo exhibitions, open to emerging artists living in New York or New England.

As Real Art Ways grows, our commitment to supporting young and emerging artists remains a touchstone of the organization.  With the addition of an exhibition space called the Real Room, there are now more opportunities for artists to exhibit their work at one of America’s seminal alternative spaces.

The STEP UP exhibition series seeks to provide emerging artists in our region an exhibition and publication opportunity at a critical moment in their careers. 

The jury will select work based on: the quality of the artist’s work, the innovation evidenced by the submitted work and proposal, the potential impact of the exhibition on the artist’s career and the economic and physical feasibility of the proposed exhibition. While artists are permitted to propose the exhibition of existing work, the jury will place special emphasis on proposals that call for the creation of new work.

JURORS
Chris Doyle – Multi-media Artist, NY
Andrea Miller-Keller – Independent Curator, CT
Herb Tam – Associate Curator, Exit Art, NY

Artists selected will receive an exhibition, an exhibition publication, and will be given an opportunity to participate in an artist’s talk in conjunction with the exhibit schedule.  Information on all projects by selected artists including their final exhibition publication will also be available on our web site, which is viewed by 175,000 unique visitors per month.

Selections from the submitted slides, videos and electronic media that are not chosen by the jury for exhibition will be considered for inclusion in a presentation called Slide Slam.

Materials must be postmarked by Friday, June 6, 2008 and sent to:

STEP UP 08
Real Art Ways
56 Arbor Street
Hartford, CT 06106

Artists selected by the jury will be notified by email or telephone no later than July 16, 2008.

Please address questions to Phoebe Augustine, Visual Arts Coordinator.

• Click here to download Step up Application PDF
  

Go - an open call for emerging artists

A series of up to six solo exhibitions, open to emerging artists living in New York or New England.

Congratulations to this year's chosen artists:

Corinne Beardsley, Providence, Rhode Island
WonJung Choi, New York, New York
Gautam Kansara, Brooklyn, New York
Sam McKinniss, Hartford, Connecticut
David Politzer, Syracuse, New York
Ellen Shattuck, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Over 230 artists applied for the GO exhibitions series. Six artists were selected by jurors: Derrick Adams, (Curatorial Director, Rush Arts Gallery and Resource Center, NY); Jane Philbrick, (Artist, CT); Olu Oguibe, (Visual Artist, Writer, Scholar, Curator and Associate Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Connecticut, CT).

GO is made possible with the generous support of our Members, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alexander A. Goldfarb Memorial Trust, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

• Learn more about Go