About the Artist
From her Arizona studio, fiber artist Elizabeth Anne Brown creates intricate and richly colored organic images. Elizabeth started working with fiber in the mid 90's when she became interested in translating her highly graphic designs from paper to textile. She chose fiber due to its sensual aspect as well as its malleable qualities. She is best known for her complex and often monumental hangings that are imbued with colorful patterns with in patterns.
Elizabeth studied fine art and art history at Rhode Island School of Design and in Rome, Italy where she received her bachelors of fine arts degree. She went on to receive her master of fine arts degree in Fibers from Arizona State University. Her work has shown nationally and internationally and has been featured in several publications including Surface Design magazine.
Elizabeth is an artist who focuses her energies on aspects of texture and ornament. Treating the material as an object she moves from inside the fibers to the surface and from pliable to rigid. She works with simple cotton muslin manipulating the cloth using dyes, drawing mediums and hardeners in order to create undulating planes of elaborately interwoven shapes and hues. A shift in stance or lighting and the colors pulsate rhythmically from deep within, often reveling layers of obscured structures.
Her color influences come from the surrounding arid landscape of Arizona to journeys in the south pacific islands. Her images are saturated with provocative combinations of ochre, salmon, olive, and cobalt, or, alternatively high keyed contrasts of fiery reds and blacks.
The prevalence of pattern-repeated, interrupted or played in variations-evokes the ideas of self containment, boundaries, and interaction. The visual and tactile sensations of movement and connection appeal to the viewers sense of touch which creates a physical bond with her art. Elizabeth's ability to extract the essence of an overarching motif from many dissimilar forms and shapes alerts our perception to the patterning of our own lives.
TNTerrin@TerrinSystem.com [e-mail]
