Artist Statement

For Things Uncertain

As a solo show approaches, I discover that at some level I am thinking hard about what the show will say; what the work will reveal.

But in this instance, my work seems to come from many different sources, it goes in many directions. Some of those directions seem familiar and clear to me. But some of this work comes from impulses that seem startling, unsettling and yet true. This work reflects the uncertainty of our world and of these difficult times.

From the previous Coming to the Edge

Anticipating a possible move from the DC metro area, I decided I wanted to
know the city better. I began spending lunch hours bicycling through an area
of town just north of Dupont Circle.

I discovered what all residents of the city know... that the delight of
Washington is found not at the monuments or museums but in the city¹s
alley¹s and side streets.

Bicycling through these often-overlooked places, I was overcome by the
visual richness of the city. Forms, textures and architectural detail, drew
me again and again to explore this small portion of the city.

But there was an additional fascination with something subtler. That was an
encounter with remnants of the past, and the imagined history of the
buildings and neighborhoods I was exploring. I felt myself to be in the
presence of ghosts, people lost and people forgotten. As I watched parts of
the city being stripped away for redevelopement, I became aware of the
fragility of our community and environment. Indeed of our very lives.

I began to write of these things and to try to find both a visual and a
written language that would capture the power of my response to these things
that I was seeing. Previously I have worked almost exclusively from
observation. But in the instance of this body of work, I began to produce
drawings from my imagination, allowing images to develop that often
surprised me. Additionally, I began to work consistently in the intaglio
process, trying to find marks that seemed in keeping with the visual
experience I was having.

I had intended to create a book consisting of these images and poems. The
work undertaken to realize that goal has led me into techniques that I had
not used before now, and that I find visually exciting. The project is only
partially realized, and only four of the poems and their corresponding
images appear in this show.

Coming to the Edge, a line from one of these poems, sums up and informs my
current efforts. It reflects a concern with approaching and surpassing
boundaries; a concern with leaving behind old familiar things in favor of
the unknown and unexplored. It reflects an awareness and a wary and perhaps
reluctant embrace of uncertainty, impermanence and change.

Biography

Ellen Winkler is a printmaker, painter and graphic artist who has lived in the Washington DC metropolitan area for over 20 years. Having graduated in1981 from George Washington University with an MFA degree in design, she has worked for both private
industry and the federal government. She is currently Art Director of The Chronicle of Higher Education’s opinion and arts weekly, The Review.

In 1995, Ms. Winkler joined The Washington Printmakers Gallery and began a period of intensive work in printmaking. Beginning as an etcher, the artist’s work has evolved from etching, to almost exclusively monotype, to her new intaglios.

Influenced greatly by the work of Jack Boul, Lee Newman and Rosalie Day White, Ms. Winkler’s work is small in scale and intimate. Her subjects have included studies of people seen in lunchrooms, city parks, and the Washington Metro system.

The artist explains, “While it is always pleasant to produce a successful or pleasing picture, the real excitement of making art for me arises from the interactions that I experience among my subject, myself and my materials. For this reason, making art always
remains an exciting and revelatory process.”