Growing up in a house of intellects – where books were prized possessions lining virtually every wall in their home, Eve Ozer found sanctuary and inspiration between the pages of science fiction novels. These escapes into the surrealistic worlds of fantasy influence and inform her art today. She describes this form of art-making as an extension of her writing, stories told in paper images instead of words.
‘What lights me up about collage is the ability to manipulate and rearrange objects in space. I am collapsing boundaries and fracturing our sense of reality. Putting recognizable images at odds with our sense of the world creates a puzzle for the mind’.
Drawing from her intrigue with the fashion and beauty industries and how they instill a portrait of ‘perfection’ in our collective psyche, Ozer flips through magazines and catalogues, searching for images that compel her to stop and take a closer look. She then begins the process of ripping, cutting, painting, and pasting new, alternative narratives. So far, Ozer has created 98 collages over the past two years. They range from quirky to erotic.
‘I call these collages analogue vignettes as each one tells a story. I am not here to tell you the ending. I am here to show you the beginning. The rest is up to you.’
Ozer creates her work in her home studio outside of Chicago. She has exhibited extensively both in solo and group shows. Her collages and paintings hang in corporate offices in Chicago, private collections throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. She is represented by Gallery 1871, Chicago, IL USA. For more info, visit eveozer.com
Art has always been part of your life, but you ended up in the corporate world. What led you back to your creativity?
I would say I was never apart from my creativity. During my years in advertising and marketing, I used other means to express my creativity, from the way I dressed to the way I decorated our home to the way I cooked. Admittedly, none of these was as fulfilling as painting, writing, or making collages, but they were still expressions of creativity.
You say you paint inside-out. Can you tell us about your process from conception to the final piece?
As a non-objective painter, I create from a world of thought. Even though I don’t consciously put recognizable images into the work, many times, people see objects in the paintings. I always begin by entering the canvas space with charcoal or graphite, making random marks. Then begins the process of looking, painting, looking, painting some more, covering up, rediscovering, until my final gaze registers an end.
How does Asian calligraphy inspire you, and how is it incorporated into your work?
Calligraphy has always held a fascination. Not the classical Western style we see on invitations, rather the exotic, painterly Asian style that recalls a beautiful mystery. Not having the temperament nor the patience for formal study, I began an exploration of creating my own abstract calligraphic language. Just as the calligraphy is a mystery, so is the painting process. As I make these abstract marks throughout the painting, many of them get buried within the layers. The ones that remain are the visual keys, guideposts of sorts.
The Vignette Series is a body of analogue collages that examine contradictions. Can you tell us more about this series?
Yes, the series is based on surrealistic shape-shifting narratives, a form of visual storytelling told in paper images instead of words. I see them as extensions of my writing and poetry. I have been incorporating parts of poems into the larger collages.
As a child, I was fascinated by science fiction stories. Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov were two of my favourite authors. What lights me up about collage is the ability to create these fantastic, dual realities by scrambling known images and putting them into unrecognizable settings. It’s like walking into the bar of a Star Wars movie. You know everyone at the bar is a sentient being, yet you don’t recognize them as “human” beings.
Having a recognizable body of work is often considered preferable, especially by galleries. Is it important for you to have a unique style, or do you prefer more experimental?
That is such an interesting question. I know many artists struggle with this ‘finding your voice’ conundrum. It’s all my voice. My paintings tell one story, my collages another. Each body is very different because I am saying something different in each. My paintings are places where you can lose yourself for a while, tuck the troubles of the world away, and just dream. The collages, however, are about disruption. Dual realities are colliding with each other, shape-shifting consciousness that makes us question our normal foundation.
The pandemic has been around us for some time. How has the situation impacted your work?
Like many artists, it has been a year plus of postponements. I had a solo exhibit scheduled to open on March 17, 2020, and everything shut down here in Chicago on March 14. We had hung the show a few days before…so it sat in an empty gallery for a couple of months before I took it all down, wrapped it up, and brought it home. That was a bit of a gut punch. However, that was so insignificant with what was unfolding. Luckily, my studio is in my home. Many of my friends have outside studios that they couldn’t access. Most of the time I could keep up with my daily practice. I am just so grateful for my art practice. It really does keep me inspired and grounded.
It can be challenging to know when to stop making alterations to a painting – how do you know when the piece is finished?
There’s a great story told by abstract expressionist Philip Guston during an interview. He was making one little change in a painting, then he saw another needed change, and after doing this for a while, he said, ‘the painting was gone. I so related to that.
There have been multiple times a painting was almost finished, yet something felt off, and I knew it could be better, so I re-entered the canvas with a ‘what if?’ approach, and, like Guston, the painting disappeared, at which point I simply began again. I know it’s finished when I look at it, and I get that cool little tingle rippling through my body. It’s a visceral acknowledgement.
What are you working on currently?
I am beginning a body of work for a solo show scheduled for August-September 2022 at Lewis University Brent and Jean Wadsworth Gallery, located in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. It is a big space, so I am working on a series of larger paintings. I also write essays and poetry and am curating them into a book, or perhaps two separate books. Your readers can find my writings on my blog: germangirlart.blogspot.com. Other than that, I am honoring my daily studio practice by showing up and hoping my muse comes out to play.
