Peaks and Valleys

These recent paintings present Elrod's continued exploration of the body as a point of departure for her take on abstraction and sensuality. Across the series, Brush the Heat evokes a temporal, twilight atmosphere where figures and their parts become shapes that interplay as the imagery shifts in and out of recognition. The works toggle between transparency and opacity; they invite the viewer to the edge of knowing. Elrod also relates to these paintings as landscapes; they are poetic spaces that both contain and become the body. Her imagery playfully encourages the viewer into multiple readings of the quasi-representational forms.

Stemming from imagination and memory, Elrod cultivates her imagery through innumerable ink and gouache works on paper. The paintings begin on unstretched canvas directly on the wall. She then builds the surface using acrylic, oils, graphite, and pastels of all kinds, often alternately layering and removing. The surfaces both reflect and pursue embodiment in all its ineffable, fleeting, absurd or profound moments.

In the stare, so in between
I’m feeling bold, I’m in a dream
I am a mess, I am no god
It’s just the flesh that burned under the stars
- Little Dragon