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Elaine Summers – Artist Statement
A self-taught artist, I began creating shrines with broken jewelry and paint after being exposed to an array of outsider folk artists. The late Reverend Howard Finster was my biggest inspiration. He decorated anything and everything with mosaics, paint, jewelry, bottles, what ever he could find. I was completely consumed by the thought that anything could be art. I was very interested in using things people discarded to keep regenerating its potential. I started using tile and glass so that I could make pieces that would withstand the weather. I love working with tile for a few reasons but mainly because of it’s reflective qualities. I like to create pieces that you want to spend time with – like a shrine; I like my art to have a depth so that you don’t see everything at once. This allows the viewer to keep coming back to the piece and hopefully see something new each time.
