In Conversation with Elizabeth Lax

Final Critique with Elizabeth

Introduce yourself!

I'm Elazabeth Lax. I'm the second resident at feverdream. I mostly do oil paintings, some acrylic. I focus on figures, especially involving religion, cults, coercive control groups, and generational trauma.

How was your experience at feverdream?

I loved my experience at feverdream. This is such a great honor to be able to practice every day on my art. And also have good people around. To have a lot of support and feedback. Having the funds to be able to take time off of work made it so I was able to really focus on experimentation and not have to be concerned with how to make sellable work. So it was a really positive experience for me.

It's still hard to be able to make work that is bad. Even though there's no pressure to make good work. It's hard to break out of that as an artist.

What did you learn about your artistic practice during your stay? 

I learned that the quicker I work the more intuitive I am about my choices. I also learned that creating art that has meaning in it is really important to me. Also, I was able to experiment with some different ways of becoming inspired; like trying to enter into the state of hypnagogia and stay there for my inspiration. I also learned to be more disciplined in my practice and how to sustain my focus while working.

How was this opportunity a boost for yourself as an emerging artist? Did it set you ahead?

This opportunity was a boost for me in my career because I was able to network with other artists. It helps me really hone in on the type of work that I want to be making. And also narrow down the way that I construct my work. I feel more sure about that now. So those are all things that are going to help me in my practice in the future.

How did this experience lend to any experimentation in your practice? What did you experiment with?

I think that this was definitely more experimental as far as what I allowed myself to do. But I think the most that I experimented was with the medium itself—working with acrylic paints as opposed to oil. Also trying my hand at gouache and some different medium that was mixed in with my paints. So, experimenting with some paints that I never would have really thought about using before since I lean so heavily on oils. But being able to have a stipend that I could put towards maybe some more fun materials really helped me. Also experimenting with the best way to construct my canvases. And with how I get my ideas and where to draw my sources from. Much of my work ended up being from my old family films and so that was very interesting to dig into. But also experimenting with AI, collaging, taking dream imagery. I think I experimented more with how to create original compositions and how color can really push a piece, instead of just relying on an image that's already laid out for me. And staying true to the source. 

How did you surprise yourself during your stay? 

I think the biggest surprise to me was how I was able to push through when I felt really stuck in my ideas. And just being able to get over that hump was really inspiring for me to see. It made me kind of realize that that's always going to happen. We're always going to run into an ugly phase in paintings or maybe our ideas aren't coming to fruition the way that we thought they would. So yeah, just being able to push through that.

What did you think about the space you work in? Did it foster creativity?

I think that this space did foster creativity just because there's so many people here that are either inspired by other people's creativity or are creators themselves. So just being around so much that's centered around art. [In] my home studio there's no one around. It's just me so I can get inspired from watching documentaries, or listening to art podcasts. But that's the only dialogue that I really hear about it. I don't have anybody just randomly walking through my apartment studio. (Laughs)

Did you feel like a member of the community at the studio space?

 I did feel like a member of the community. Everybody was super welcoming. And it's very unpretentious. I felt really comfortable here.

Was the neighborhood area surrounding the studio a positive? What is the best restaurant in the area?

 Yeah I love this area. What’s the name of the sandwich shop? La Bodega. (Laughs) I love this area. I love La Bodega and getting food there. I especially loved going for nature walks around here. I felt like it was a really beautiful environment to just stand around in for my short walks on break at the studio.

What was your favorite piece you made while here and why?

I would think my favorite piece was the last one that I did. It was what I had learned from doing each of the pieces [previous]. And it kind of played off of their different concepts. It's also a painting based around religion which is really what I'm enjoying focusing on right now. Still images pulled from VHS’s of church worship services and cult ceremonies. That one was of my sister's when they were young in a Christmas Pageant. And it has kind of this creepy feeling to it but also focuses on the nostalgia. That was a main theme of this residency for me.

I think that the difference between painting people that I know, like family members versus painting people that I don't know in these cult and religion paintings specifically is that I'm not thinking of this cult,  religion, or group as a novelty. Like, “that's fascinating.” For me, when it's my family members, I'm thinking about our experiences in our faith that we grew up in. So the main difference is just what I'm thinking about as I'm painting. But as far as the way that the paint is handled, I noticed that when I'm painting somebody that I know I'm much more obsessed with getting a likeness instead of just enjoying freely painting and making quick decisions. I'm really focused on making it look correct. And so getting very detailed and focused.

Is that a pro or a con?

It's a con. Yes, it's a con, I really want to be able to make work that's more impressionistic—not so tight and representational. It drives me crazy. If I look at it and it doesn't look anything like the person I know. And also, creating a likeness is a really big challenge. So sometimes I just like the challenge. If you get too detailed, it stops looking like a film photo. And that's something I have struggled with in some of the pieces I've done before of my grandparents. Their faces were much larger, they were about like this big. (Gesturing) And so I was able to get more detailed. And so I had to paint over it with some layers of glazing just to lose the detail that I kept wanting to get in there.

What was your biggest takeaway?

My biggest takeaway is that the meaning in an art piece doesn't have to be so clearly stated. I'm starting to learn more about different techniques that I can use to really push my point and give the viewer more clues as to what's going on instead of spelling it out for them. So that would be my biggest takeaway.

I felt like I had to literally spell it out. Like sometimes I would write on the paintings. But there's just other ways of making an impression, I suppose. Just being more thoughtful about some of the Gestalt principles and how those can be used to push my work. So how color and composition can say as much as the subject matter itself.

Final Critique with Elizabeth

What were you most nervous about? 

I think that I was most nervous about if I would get along with people which was super easy to. I think I was also nervous about not being able to sustain inspiration. But I did find that just being able to not pressure myself to make amazing work made me more inspired to create because there wasn't like the suffocation of my creativity. I could do anything, you know, I could really create anything and be more open. So that was really inspiring.

That's not to say there weren't hard days?

I've actually never had a hard day in my entire life, and I've always been inspired. And things have always gone really well and easy for me. (Laughs) Yeah, no, actually, that's very real. I have too many ideas. And really the hardest thing is sitting down and making them so I can get to all of them. But I'm starting to get a backlog of ideas that I need to get to. And I don't want to lose the inspiration for them. Maybe years later [I would think] that was a really dumb idea. But I could have done it when I liked it.

What was daily life like while you were here? 

 A typical day was basically coming in and I would make a little chai latte to get me going. I would do anything from researching the next painting—which could be looking at videos or playing with AI. Or I could be prepping a canvas. Most days just sitting down and putting the time in by painting. And usually joking around with the crew in the mezzanine (Laughs).

Mid progress critique with special guest Darius Steward

What did you think of the critiques? 

 The critique sessions were really helpful. It was nice to be able to get that feedback because a lot of people are concerned about giving that feedback and maybe hesitate. They might give a lot of compliments. Just in everyday life, people might be like, “Oh, I really liked that.” But getting some of that more critical feedback is really helpful for being able to push myself and also getting a more objective, well-rounded opinion on my work. And I don't take every single thing that I hear but a lot of it is helpful. And I asked myself: “is this important to me? Are those good points.” But yeah, I did think that the critiques were one of the main reasons that I applied. To be able to have that again because in school that's what I saw as one of the most valuable things in the program I went to.

Being able to have local artists that are newer to the community but also ones that are more established helps me envision the path a little bit better. But truthfully, I do feel like we could have more artists come in (Laughs). Because I did really like having more artists give me opinions on what they're working on and what they enjoy and see in my work. And just being able to have dialogue with other artists that have the same vocabulary as me to talk about work. I don't know, it's more concise.

Did you learn anything surprising during critiques?

There was a lot of really good input. A lot of really good advice that I got from people in the critiques. I think that the most helpful was thinking about the Gestalt principles, not to keep bringing those up. But like the painting itself. “Why is it being painted this way? Why choose this size? And why this color palette?” Starting to be more intentional because I really do think that's the mark between an okay artist and a great artist. The ability to be really intentional about decisions throughout [the process]. And have them be well thought out and not just chance. But I do think that it should appear to be more like chance. I don't know. I really just learned about how to create work that was more thoughtful.

Last question, if you had to permanently remove one person in the Mez who would it be? 

Honestly if I could just have The Mezzanine to myself that would be ideal. I felt like I was really distracted and I couldn't get a lot of work done. (Laughs)