Artists Statement
Rachael Elwell’s drawings explore the perceptual connections between line, form and space through contemporary drawing processes. Her work focuses on the relationship between chance as an essential dimension of art, and an interest in control and structure in the composition of image making.
Her drawing series are are random, generative and transformative creating a sense of becoming rather than the static or fixed. Elwell puts into place set systems and methods of mark making, constrained by the limitations of working with the pencil, the pen and the stroke. From there on she exploits this by breaking such self-imposed rules; she adds shade, reduces the strokes, erases and resets the paper surface.
Aesthetically, Elwell deals with the graphical connotations of the hand drawn line, albeit by the appearance of closely positioned and intertwining lines into form. She doesn’t claim to do this intentionally, but more to test the tactile qualities of different media. This appears central, but into which final result is an unknown entity until the process is complete. In so far as a contained or chaotic, constructed or inverted process goes, Elwell confidently creates with unexpected results.
