Sophie Ryan Ellis
she/her
And My Gaze Knows the Moon’s Light
Experience is distorted by perception, but in this realm of the imaginary, perception is skewed by what you see. This work is influenced by Irish mythology, nature, and phenomenology. I seek to acknowledge the unseen - the life outside of our own, between the here and the now. The large-scale painted fabric encompasses anyone who enters the space. The slight transparency of the fabric allows light and shadows to play a part in the artwork. Shadows become figures in the art; their appearance depends on the alignment of the sun and the reflection through the windows, distorting how they can be perceived.
My work depicts numerical themes through different representations of the number three, with the repetition of the moon in the paintings. This pattern of the repetition of three comes from the three faced goddess and the three sister rivers within Irish mythology, signifying the influence of our past.