Ellie Barrett Wilder

I'm interested in stream of consciousness. Liberally used in literature, and experimented with at length by the Dadaists and Surrealists, it's my favorite form in art. For me, stream of consciousness means freedom. Throughout our entire lives we're compelled to make sense, to be organized, straight forward and predictable, and get the story straight. Formal aesthetics demands structure and order. So when I pour out onto an art substrate freely: images, color, texture and form, light, space, depth of layers and symbols, a whole new world opens up. And it brings with it an invitation to meaning. The narrative then follows the act. Like the art of divination, like reading the cards. I use my work as a tool to get at who I am and how I experience the world more than the other way around. I explore who I am, moving through life, the way I engage with my environment. There's nothing else I do in life that gives me as rich an inner world as making art.

Jeff Koons says: "I think the way art comes into the world is through a metaphysical process. If you try to create art, it's a decorative process. You're just wasting time, spinning gears. You get so bored with yourself that you just stop the process and say, 'okay what do I really want...

1978 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Studio Art

Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Minors: Art History & Graphic Design