Profile:
From texture evident in her collage work in oil to the subtleties of her use of dry media, Elaine Tolsma Harlow has offered us glimpses of her progression toward encaustic paintings. While these appear to be a departure from her previous pieces, the naturally sculptural qualities of her abstract paintings seem to build on the characteristics and echo her representational work.
Her process of laying down wax, melting and then scraping it down repeatedly informs the final piece. As her paintings progress, both contrasting and common elements form connections. The lack of control caused by using hot wax and heat guns pushes her beyond precision and in the seeming chaos, she finds beauty in order and structure. Relationships between elements appear and rhythm, pattern, and texture emerge. As each work evolves, it gains an identity through the process of making marks and textures.
Statement:
During the start of the pandemic, my artwork changed. It transitioned from abstract to realistic, with peonies often the subject. I also turned 50 in a healthy body that had eluded me in my younger years. As I contemplate the change in my artwork, I continue to ask questions: what is beauty, what makes something beautiful, and is something still beautiful as it evolves? The definition of beauty can be dictated upon us by those with more power and society as a whole. What is considered beautiful often faces violence and can even be destroyed. These works are a reflection of the concept of beauty at this point in my life being a woman after cancer, after a pandemic, and after turning 50.
These oil paintings on wood panels capture both the timeless and the fleeting. The moments of perfection and perfection blighted. Of beauty and beauty violated. Painted thinly and rarely with more than one layer of paint, they are both laborious and instant, intentional and intuitive. Through these contrasting ideas and practices, I am continuing my efforts to become not just whole, but holy.
Solo Exhibitions:
| 2021 | Aestivation, Center Art Gallery Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI |
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| 2019 | Motherland, Center Art Gallery Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI |
Selected Exhibitions:
| 2021 | Liminal, Lafontsee Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI |
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| 2019 | Hold Dear, Lafontsee Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI |
| 2018 | Collective, LaFontsee Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI |
| Toast, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| 2017 | ArtPrize, Richard App Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI |
| West Michigan Cancer Center Annual Exhibition, Kalamazoo, MI | |
| Perception & Intention, LaFontsee Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI | |
| Toast, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| Slightly Obsessive, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| Everyone in the Pool, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas MI | |
| Freshly Considered, LaFontsee Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI | |
| 2016 | Selected Works, LaFontsee Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI |
| Toast, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| Collective Alchemy, LaFontsee Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI | |
| 2015 | ArtPrize, Grand Rapids Downtown Market, Grand Rapids, MI |
| Let’s Get Started, LaFontsee Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI | |
| Toast, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| Everyone in the Pool, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| Lookie Here, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| 2014 | ArtPrize, Fifth/Third Bank, Grand Rapids, MI |
| Slightly Obsessive II, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| Annual Fall Celebration, LaFontsee Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI | |
| Hop, Skip and a Jump, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| 2012 | ArtPrize, Calvin College (106) Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI |
| LG-Group, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| Festival of the Arts, Grand Rapids, MI | |
| Alumni Art Show & Competition, Center Art Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI | |
| Color Context, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| Fresh Squeezed & Locally Grown, LaFontsee Galleries, Douglas, MI | |
| Act II, LaFontsee Galleries,Douglas, MI | |
| Previous years available on request |
Collections:
Hellen DeVos Children’s Hospital, Grand Rapids, MI
Lemmen Holton Cancer Pavillion, Grand Rapids, MI
Johnson Controls, Holland, MI
West Michigan Cancer Center, Kalamazoo, MI
Anna’s House Restaurant, Holland, MI