Elise Dodeles Art Blog

The artist in her studio

Elise Dodeles — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:45:56 +0000

Plus, you can get a few glimpses of my beautiful, lounging dog, Sammie. Maryanne is responsible for the great camerawork.

S/Hero 3rd day

Elise Dodeles — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:02:27 +0000

worked on the face

S/Hero, 2nd day

Elise Dodeles — Sat, 12 May 2012 13:36:15 +0000

S/Hero

Elise Dodeles — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:13:39 +0000

Heard a folk singer refer to a S/Hero instead of a Hero. I was intrigued, as I never heard the term. This is the beginnings of my version of a Hero: someone who has almost no strength left, but perseveres none-the-less.

shades of Schiele

April showers …

Elise Dodeles — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:17:50 +0000

During this dreary week in April I am continuing to explore my family’s tragic German past. Princeton University’s Adolf Hitler manuscript collection includes three amazing photograph albums of Hermann Goring as prepared by Lutz Heck. The photographs include many of his beautiful hunting dogs. These images are all the more chilling for their banality. At about the time Goring and his cronies were hunting in the Bavarian Alps, my grandparents were running for their lives, hiding in Italian forests.

I am also fascinated by Dr. George Fox’s use of photographs to illustrate skin diseases, and would again like to combine my family’s personal images with some of them, which I am keeping close by, along with two images of malnourished civil war prisoners found on the American Memory site. I am still working on how to put this all together.

: In the studio

Another full face

Elise Dodeles — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:47:36 +0000

Fighter A944

Elise Dodeles — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:40:58 +0000

Only added a few more colors to complete it.

Portrait

Elise Dodeles — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:38:41 +0000

I am reading two biographies: Hitler’s Hangman: the life of Heydrich by Robert Gerwarth, and Hitler by A. N. Wilson. Very different works. I find myself laughing out loud reading Wilson’s book. In spite of the laughter, both reads are sobering.

Fighter A944

Elise Dodeles — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:57:45 +0000

in bright colors, being worked on. I was thinking of the yellows that Van Gogh used. Not that brave, I have concentrated more on the color orange, which can be related to flesh tones.

Happy

Elise Dodeles — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:21:36 +0000

with this portrait of fighter A956. DeKooning talked about how sensuous oil paint is, how it was created to paint flesh. So even though the fumes are nasty, I won’t give it up for another medium.