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A weekly look at creativity, arts, and culture in southwest Michigan, hosted by Zinta Aistars.Fridays in Morning Edition at 7:50am and at 4:20pm during All Things Considered.

Art Beat: It's in the details

Painting by Ellen Nelson
Courtesy of the artist
/
Ellen Nelson
Painting by Ellen Nelson

Artist and muralist Ellen Nelson says about her work, “My work as an artist draws heavily from my experiences in grappling with the unknown. Inspired by the mystical within the ordinary and driven by a passion for understanding, my oil paintings seek to find the beauty, truth, and meaning in the chaotic patterns of everyday life. I use colors, patterns, and objects that are nostalgic, joyful, or powerful, with the hope that my final pieces will offer viewers moments of respite from the weight of the world.” You are bound to see the bright murals painted by Ellen Nelson around the Kalamazoo area.

A conversation with Ellen Nelson

“Especially (with) my latest work, I’ve been very, very slowly throughout the course of the past couple of years, new pieces that are inspired by the pattern and design element: lots of florals, lots of little minute repeating details. Things that you can feel the time and energy that went into it,” says Nelson. “I just love it when I can spend an entire day making little beads or something in my painting.”

Painting by Ellen Nelson
Courtesy of the artist
/
Ellen Nelson
Painting by Ellen Nelson

What repeats in Nelson’s paintings can be most anything: flowers, beads, chairs, lampshades, insects, windows, numbers, light bulbs, toys, coins, shoes, and more. Do it once; do it again. And again.

“I love focusing in on one little detail,” she says. “And then the results of that, I don’t know, to me you can feel the time, you can feel the focus. And I’m trying to replicate with that the kind of tedium and details of everyday life.”

But Nelson’s work is not microscopic. Her paintings tend to be large, but her many murals in and around the greater Kalamazoo area and elsewhere in the state loom even larger and in the brightest of colors. Her mural of the Pleistocene era can be seen at the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Another decorates a 40-foot grain silo in Tecumseh, Michigan. Yet another catches the eye on the side of a building in Kalamazoo’s Vine Street neighborhood. Butterflies, birds, fish, and turtles float across walls while mice peek up from baseboards and roosters crow around corners in visiting rooms. Other murals color the elevators of the Park Trades Center in Kalamazoo, where Nelson keeps a studio. She is currently working on a series of Michigan landscapes at the West Michigan Cancer Center.

Another effort Nelson leads is the “Vine Artist Critique Night,” a workshop for artists of all kinds to gather and offer insights on each other’s work. Updates about it appear on her Facebook page.

“This was something I really wanted to try out,” Nelson says. “Getting artists together on a regular basis so we could show each other our work and get feedback. And, aside from that, just kind of grow together and trust one another and maybe put on shows together.”

Nelson has also taught art in Michigan state prisons, working with inmates in Detroit and Jackson area. She lives in Kalamazoo.

Listen to WMUK's Art Beat every Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.

Zinta Aistars is our resident book expert. She started interviewing authors and artists for our Arts & More program in 2011.
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