Meet Elizabeth Chapin | artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elizabeth Chapin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elizabeth, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
I hope my “career” ends only when l I do. May I fall over in the studio. And in that moment, I hope that I will have kept my questioning alive in myself and my work. May I always play with process, intention and mediums. May I keep my art open and fugitive. May I put my practice above most things, but not above the wholeness of life, trying to be good medicine to my family and friends, letting all of life — the banalities, inconveniences and sufferings; also the absurdities and extravagances — flood (or sneak) into myself and my work. There is a tidal wave of continuous motion of life going into the studio and the studio going into life. May I not protect myself from life. And may I not protect myself from failure.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I mostly painted commissioned portraits until around 2016, when I started cutting paintings off the stretchers, stuffing them, zippering them, adding scents, secret pockets, neon and painted projection. I recently learned to weld, so that I can make armatures for these bodies that are becoming sculptures. I am excited for my show next month called Treespell, where the forest is the protagonist or the portrait. I am learning to listen to myself better. When ideas come to me, or images come to me, I feel determined to bring them about, even if I don’t know how. And when I look back on when I was more focused on being a mother, and my creative ideas often went towards my children, that energy is also contained in what I am doing now. It is not something that I need to go back and redo or rebalance, but it is folded in to the work. That is something I continue to work on. To be nice to my past selves. They are not separate from me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in Austin, TX. And Austin is one of those cities, unlike LA or NYC or Paris, where there are so many cultural things you must do. Austin is almost a feeling–it gives you permission to not do anything but maybe eat a good taco and lounge under the towering pecans in Barton Springs with a good book. Austin is its people more than its opportunites. Or I should say, her people are her gift. But I suppose that is true everywhere.

I would eat tacos at Nixta, goat birria and agua fresca from the truck Taquito Aviles, tacos al pastor from the truck Un Mundo De Sabor, eat everything at the newer Mediterranean restaurant Ezov, and scallion, taleggio pizza at Bufalina on Cesar Chavez. I might venture to Lockhart to experience the medieval meat cave that is Smitty’s bbq.
And when you are not eating tacos or bbq, you are swimming at Barton Springs. My favorite shops are La Embajada, Moss, By George, Uncommon Objects. I would vintage shop at Charm School and find potions from local makers at Take Heart. I would worship light in Ellsworth Kelly’s chapel. And I might buy some boots or a fat buckle at Allen’s Boots on South Congress.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am in my third year of a three year mentorship with the beautiful artists Shahzia Sikander and Holly Hughes. This mentorship program, through Anderson Ranch, is a rare and needed support structure for professional artists. I am very grateful to be in regular critiques with them and the 9 other painters in our group. It is powerful and humbling to have the attention, the ideas, and the kindness of these artists in my life.

Website: www.elizabethchapin.com

Instagram: elizabethchapin

Image Credits
Sara Essex Bradley and Inti St. Clair