Buoyancy Found and Carrying it Forward

Looking at these photographs of Finding Buoyancy at Imogen Gallery, I’m taking a moment to appreciate all that went into this show and, all that has come back through it.

The exhibition closed October 5, and I’m so grateful to everyone who visited, came to my artist talk, spent time with the work, and brought a piece home. The show had wonderful sales, and knowing that these paintings will become part of someone’s daily life means so much to me. Thank you to Imogen Gallery for giving this body of work such a beautiful setting, and to Rebekah Johnson for these photographs. What remains of the work in the September show will be exhibited during the month of October in the front room at Imogen Gallery, October 10-November 1.

There is something remarkable about seeing paintings together once they have left the studio. At Pier 11, I know them up close: the layers, the marks, the decisions, the places where something unexpected happened. In the gallery, there is room to step back and see the relationships between them. The long horizontal paintings stretch across the walls like passages of river, while smaller works invite a closer look.

Finding Buoyancy 1 & 2. Pigmented beeswax & oil on panel. 18 x 65 x 2 in. 2026.

And then there is the light. The textured wax surfaces catch it differently than they did while I was making them. Details emerge, colors shift, and marks I know so well are newly visible. This is one of the things I love about painting: it keeps giving over time. What you notice can change with the light, your distance from it, or simply what you bring to it that day.

Finding Buoyancy grew out of my life beside the Columbia River, where the view outside my studio window changes constantly. The buoy became a way to think about navigation, resilience, and the capacity to rise while remaining anchored. As the work developed, those ideas expanded into celestial navigation, mapping, and symbols for finding direction through change.

They also grew from what I had left behind in Portland and what I was building here in Astoria. “Because art keeps going” became a phrase I leaned into at Pier 11. Making this work helped me understand what that means in my own life: continuing to be curious, showing up in the studio, and allowing new surroundings and experiences to enter the paintings.

Finding Buoyancy Study 1. Pigmented beeswax & oil on panel. 16 x 13 x 2 in. 2026.

This has been a momentous season of my life. I turned 60 in September, in the middle of the exhibition, and had a huge bash with three other friends all born in the Year of the Firehorse. I have been feeling grateful for my health, my resilience, and the love around me. Gabe, our family of friends, our animals, and the home and studio we share are all part of what keeps me buoyant. To reach this birthday with work still unfolding and new things ahead feels like something to celebrate.

Currently, I’m visiting the East Coast, where I just taught a wax collagraph printmaking class at Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CCP) in Norwalk, Connecticut. Gabe and I stayed in the Helen Frankenthaler Cottage where her presses reside and where CCP offers residencies. The class sold out so I offered a demonstration the day before. I’ll also be giving a Wax Collagraph demonstration this weekend using my PrintWax at Dan Welden’s Studio in Sag Harbor, New York. Dan invented the Solar Plate Printmaking method and I am honored o visit him at his compound again. Gabe and I will also take a quick juant over to the Pollock Krasner House since he’s never been.

As luck would have it, we went to the Pollock Krasner show “Past Continuous” at the Met which was incredibly curated and the most comprehensive selection of Lee Krasner’s work I had ever seen. One of the standout quotes that spoke to us the most in the show was at the very end: “These isions of the past, intentionally unreconciled, express Krasner and Pollock’s shared desire to keep time and history in productive suspension.” This trip to New York is nothing short of epic for us, attending a Knicks vs. Spurs game and the new broadway show Other Desert Cities. Sharing my place of origin with Gabe and getting to enjoy all of my old haunts and learn of the many new ones is another way the work keeps moving for us both—through the conversations, new friends, and, through my teaching, seeing the discoveries people make for themselves. It is a very satisfying thing.

As luck would have it, we went to the Pollock Krasner show “Past Continuous” at the Met which was incredibly curated and the most comprehensive selection of Lee Krasner’s work I had ever seen. One of the standout quotes that spoke to us the most in the show was at the very end: “These isions of the past, intentionally unreconciled, express Krasner and Pollock’s shared desire to keep time and history in productive suspension.” This trip to New York is nothing short of epic for us, attending a Knicks vs. Spurs game and the new broadway show Other Desert Cities. Sharing my place of origin with Gabe and getting to enjoy all of my old haunts and learn of the many new ones is another way the work keeps moving for us both—through the conversations, new friends, and, through my teaching, seeing the discoveries people make for themselves. It is a very satisfying thing.

Mapping Buoyancy 1. Blot print, beeswax and oil on panel. 20 x 16 x 2 in. 2026.

When I return, November brings my first solo exhibition at LIC Gallery in Seattle. Intersections will open November 7th with an artist reception from 1PM-3PM. This show brings together new paintings along with recent pieces the explore orbital patterns and scientific imagery that have appeared in my work over the past decade. I’m thinking about the parallels among these bodies of work and the ways they continue to unfold. There are more connections to explore, and I look forward to sharing them with you. You can find exhibition details and updates on the LIC Gallery website.

For now, I want to pause here, among these photographs, and say thank you. Thank you for looking closely, for collecting, for showing up, for following along, and for being inspired by my creative journey.

Because art keeps going.

— Elise

Install shot & work photographed by Rebekah Johnson.