This is Eileen Gruen's profile page. It contains her artist's statement, and a CV of her previous work.
That most promising and dangerous of creatures, the human being, fascinates me endlessly. The development of consciousness, how humans use intellect to organize their perceptions of the unknown, and the variety of human response to issues are all intriguing.
In my art, I often include the tools and products of that intellect: words, diagrams, maps, ships, buildings, and tools both ancient and modern. They symbolize my struggle to make sense of existence and the occasional, disastrous urge to master it. They and the human face and form are typically layered over and under chaos.
I try to incorporate my own concerns, such as environmental issues and erosion of a sense of community, but to incorporate them so subtly that viewers attach their own meanings.
As a sculptor, different materials have different atmospheres for me, such as clay from the earth, metals which have played such a role in human history, and slick, modern plastics. But glass, with its capacity to reveal or distort, to reflect or conceal, and to illuminate or confuse, seems to me to be an ideal metaphor for the human condition.
Casting glass by the lost wax process has been frustrating, time-consuming, and very rewarding. I am now finding possibilities in layering panels of glass upon which imagery and color are fused. In this two-dimensional vein, I am also exploring the textures and colors possible on a painted surface.
Email: keandei@optusnet.com.au
Work sold to private collections in Victoria, New South Wales, and U.K.