Dallas Art Salon interview with Shreveport artist Ellen Soffer, currently seen in Meadows Museum Triennial Exhibit

Ellen Soffer, Shreveport
Originally uploaded by trudeau

An interview with Shreveport painter Ellen Soffer by Neoteric Art runs in the current Dallas Art Salon. Here's an excerpt:

Neoteric Art: You live and work in Louisiana. Do your surroundings influence your work?

ES: I am not sure, maybe the light and the trees. I don’t think you can see that so much in my work but that is what interests me visually in this environment.

My work is about an internal vision, emotions, memories that get processed on a subconscious level and than find a life in the forms and colors that I use. Sometimes I am so close to what I am doing that it does take a while for me to see what was an obvious influence.

Living in Louisiana has an influence because I think that where you live has to affect your painting. Living here as an adult I feel more connected to the people in my life than the place. When I was growing up in Philadelphia I really did feel connected to the place, the buildings, people, the rhythm of life in that city. When I go back to Philadelphia now I notice the light quality is different. That is something that I would not have noticed if I had stayed there.