Ellen Burgin

Artist Statement

In painting, I embrace doubt and indecision to push the paint into forms. My process is a balance between discovery and intention, unfolding through many compositional shifts, repetitive mark-making, and layered overpainting. The resulting works suggest ambiguous bodyforms and invented terrains.
My paintings exist in the space where the familiar dissolves into possibilities. I draw from a wide range of influences, both physiological and psychological, such as the subtle muscular mechanics behind a genuine “Duchenne” smile or the perceptual distortions of migraine auras.
For me, the nature of a painting is a question and, at its core, is a place of permanent restlessness. Painting offers a way for me to explore the tensions between clarity and ambiguity, memory and invention, beauty and awkwardness. Through this ongoing process of searching, reworking, and letting go, I strive to create paintings that provoke inquiry rather than provide resolution–works rooted in the uncertainty of not fully knowing.