ADELE ELLIOTT

Bio

Adele Elliott is a painter, a novelist, a psychic, and a designer of fantasy tiaras. She is a New Orleans native who has been exiled in Mississippi since her home, and most of her sanity, were blown away by an evil wind named Katrina. She has published three novels and many short stories. Adele lives in a big purple house with her wonderful husband, Chris Hannon, and two “children,” JuJu, (a small bit of fluff who thinks he is a Rottweiler), and Zydeco Kitty (a rowdy boy-cat, and accomplished hunter of paper-balls).

Exhibition Statement

SAINTS AND SINGERS

My work is a combination of oil paint and assemblage. It is strongly influenced by the magic of New Orleans (my origin), by religious iconography, and by the subconscious. I consider myself a victim of my early Catholic education. Those haunting images from childhood are inescapable: holy cards with golden halos, the stigmata and the Sacred Heart. These things attract and repulse at the same time.

In some ways I am a daughter of the visionary artists of a hundred years ago, such as William Blake and Odilon Redon. My paintings are fraught with symbolism and desire like those of Henri Rousseau. I see the visible as something intensely enigmatic. Some images are set in dreamscapes, some are framed with subtext and memory, fantasy and fear.  I leave it to the viewer to decide what is real.

  My mother accused me of making art that is sad. I disagree. My work is about finding beauty in things that are damaged, and in orphaned things searching for a home. It is quirky and offbeat. I hope it makes someone smile.