Elaine Langerman attended
Syracuse University and The American University, ultimately graduating
from the University of Maryland with an MFA in 1978. Even as a child
she adored making things and continued her studio work through
marriage and children, returning to graduate school when her youngest
became six. She has traveled throughout Europe, the US and Japan,
living in Colorado for eight years, and has done some teaching as
well. In recent years, she began incorporating her photographs and her
voracious reading into her painted dreams, panels, screens, and unique
books. She is currently engaged in making a series of shaped, layered,
and painted relief collages.
Artist's Statement
For me dreams are by their very nature
evanescent yet, paradoxically, butterflies to be caught and savored by
the dreamer for a tiny slice of time. Some, perhaps, suggest solutions
to almost insoluble problems. I liken the process of dream creation to
what we as artists do in the studio, as we focus within and open to
"without."
Recording dreams, their events,
feelings and moods -- being privileged to be able to contemplate them
-- being privileged upon a time to be able to catch hold of these
illusive wisps flowing through my psyche -- form the basis of a series
of dream or dream-like images I compose on the computer, then print
and paint.
Polaroid Series #12: "Bird"
(11/20/00) began with a photograph of a garden I visited in France, a
triangle of land near the Seine on the way to the Ile Saint Louis in
Paris. The snake figure is from a Renaissance painting I found
reproduced in one of my beloved books.
Polaroid Series #16: "Rowing"
(12/23/00) in a sense reproduces a feeling I get in many of my dreams.
I am trying to get somewhere -- probably home -- and I "row"
and "row" and move forward in tiny, slow increments. And I
always feel as if there are others I need to care for that are somehow
impeding my forward progress. The sky is dark.
Parts Series #28: "The Bird
Cage" (10/6/01) has as its basis an old bamboo bird cage which I
painted green. The bird cage seems to be a frequent theme of mine.
I've included some of my favorite toys. The bird lady on the swing
regards her playthings with a somewhat jaundiced eye. As much fun as
she can have in her domain, it seems impossible for her ever to
escape. Many of my dreams seem dim and claustrophobic like the
situation depicted. The animal head on the human body -- with its cat
tail (!) -- denotes for me our animal, instinctual side, our dream
side. We dream and we never know what will appear, nor ultimately,
why.