About me:
I was born in London, but spent the rest of my life in Ireland until moving to Berlin, Germany in 2007. I studied a joint degree in Fine Art Painting and Art History at the National College of Art and Design in Thomas Street, Dublin.
About my work:
My work has gone through a number of changes over the years as I worked to find out what I wanted to express. Included in this website are examples of older work which show the progression and changes which has led me to the artwork that I produce today.
What all my work has in common is an interest in a more graphic style of imagery, with images and shapes layered over one another – something complex is formed from many simple elements. My paintings first included recogniseable elements, later I introduced more patterned abstract forms and later again I concentrated on wholly abstract paintings.
From 2007 and after my move to Berlin, my work once again changed and I reintroduced representative elements into my work, in specific female figures. For an exhibition in Berlin, I created 5 small works of drawings, cut out and arranged into a miniature scene, placed in clear acrylic boxes. All work in this series came under the title My Fairytale Life - illustrative in style, but what I like to call fairytales for adults, a snippet of a story, without the ability to read the full tale as clarification.
All images and scenes are a depiction of events, thoughts and emotions that I experienced and are as such a visual diary of my own life and encounters, however emotions are universal and as such these pieces often resonate with others on an emotional level.
This series has been the inspiration and continuing theme for all subsequent work – the drawings gave way and became hand-made small sculptures of people which I photograph. Once photographed, these figures then become part of a sculpture, thus the same element in different contexts creates different responses.
For any further information please contact me.
Elena Duff 2012