Elizabeth Winnel interview - 2011

Name: Elizabeth Winnel
Place of birth: Scarborough, Ontario, Canada

Black Cat aka Didi: Hi Elizabeth, tell me a little about you…your passions, your vices and your indispensable habits…
Elizabeth Winnel: My passions are roughly three. I love to make art, talk about art, read about art, think about art, visit art, see art, argue about art. Art in all is capacities.
Another passion is animals, and specifically companion animals. I often rescue stray animals in hopes of finding their homes and in other cases finding them new homes.
I grew up with many animals at home; dogs, cats, rabbits, turtles, geckos, snakes, fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, etc. Right now, I have dogs, a cat and snakes.
My third passion is fresh vegetarian cuisine. I've been vegan for about 9 years. I love fresh, raw veggies.

B.C.: Which is your artistic background?
E.W.: My parents enrolled me in art classes when I was 9 years old. I grew up taking these classes. In high school, I was enrolled in many art classes, and I also attended regular art classes at the McLaughlin Art Gallery, in Oshawa Ontario to study life drawing to help with college applications. I attended Fanshawe College in London, Ontario for 4 years. One year was spent in Liberal Arts taking courses outside of art. After Fanshawe College, I moved to Savannah, Georgia, USA to earn a Bachelor of Fine Art in Illustration. After finishing my degree I moved to Brooklyn, New York where I spent 2 years. I met many wonderful people there, including artists, gallerists, directors and many other creative individuals. It was very inspiring to visit artists studios, live with other artists, to draw on their motivation and their ambition, their feedback and drive. It is a real energy that keeps you working and striving for more. I miss living in Brooklyn very much, I miss my great friends.

B.C.: How do you go about choosing subjects for your work?
E.W.: I always pick subjects that I am personally familiar with so that I may approach making the work feeling honest, sincere and authentic. If I am unfamiliar with something, I find that my work my appear forced and insincere. I do not wish that for my work, so I am sure that whenever I start a painting or drawing that it is coming from a place familiar to me with which I have a connection.

B.C.: If there were an art hall of fame what about you or your work would earn you a place in it?
E.W.: I have no idea.

B.C.: Can you tell me your particular use of colors?
E.W.: Color use is based on formal and conceptual decision making. Colors must formally appear interesting but colors must also make sense in terms of concepts. No decisions are arbitrary.

B.C.: How do you know when a piece is finished?
E.W.: I know when a painting is finished because I have reached the goal I set for it the work. I also get to a point where I feel that I can't possibly put more paint on it, and I must move on to another painting.

B.C.: Can you talk me about your series of lips paintings? Which is the meaning behind this experiment?
E.W.: The intention behind the lip/mouth paintings was to provide prompts and propositions into the role and use of the body in the cultural sphere and to force an opening for dialogue. I don't see any interpretation of these works as false, as I believe that meaning derived by the viewer is subjective and embedded within his/her cultural contexts. I feel that my mouth paintings not as objectifications of body parts, but rather as opportunities to reflect and analyze images of our bodies in society.

B.C.: Is there a subject that you wanted to paint but haven’t yet?
E.W.: More people.

B.C.: What are you telling with your paintings?
E.W.: These paintings are not about specific stories, narratives or people. I see these paintings as prompts for discussions and dialogue about figuration, body language and culture.

B.C.: What does success mean to you?
E.W.: It means that I can make art as my job because doing anything else would not feel right.

B.C.: Which are your plans for the future?
E.W.: More painting, finishing grad school, teaching, and more painting

B.C.: Thanks Elizabeth for your time and your attention, good work!

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