Artist in Residence / Wood
Eleanor Richards
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Artist Statement
Using wood as my primary medium I craft objects and experiences based on my early encounters with imaginative play. I find refuge in the layered history that lives in things that are hand-made and not mass-produced and believe this is why I am motivated as an artist to make tangible objects. By making work that uses a fundamental understanding of material, shape, and purpose I have found a place from which to make objects and create settings that exist in the realm of pretend. To come up with an idea and execute it according to plan is a tactic that, for me, never plays out with any accurate prediction. The unexpected, unassumed, and instinctively impulsive are the places where my ideas and work are cultivated.
Ellie Richards is an artist, teacher, and woodworker. She received a Master of Fine Art in Wood Sculpture from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. Since then she has participated in artist residency programs at the Mesa Arts Center, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and Peters Valley School of Craft. Within these residencies she has been given ample time and space to explore new bodies of work and develop a series of small scale wood products called e.woodwares. Presently she is a Resident Artist in Wood at the Appalachian Center for Craft. Website: www.ellie-richards.com