Artist's Statement
Diptych 1306/1509 is a manifestation of my supreme love of color and those early months painting—wanting to use all the colors in my set. I was open to whatever would appear after surviving treatment for breast cancer, after surviving the isolation of the pandemic, knowing that my immune system was still not as robust as it should have been after chemo, after radiation, and I was a chronically anemic person, so my primary desire was just to stay alive. When I look at my work, the work I've done over the last year and a half, I’m delighted by the shapes, the colors, the movement, the energy.
During those mornings of experimentation, I had absolutely no idea where I would end up with a particular piece or working on multiple pieces at once. I was just throwing myself into my daily art practice. One thing for sure, I was happy. I had waited a lifetime to get back to art—something I loved as a school girl and college student. There's something here about the unbridled mind, the untroubled mind. There's something here about joy.
During those mornings of experimentation, I had absolutely no idea where I would end up with a particular piece or working on multiple pieces at once. I was just throwing myself into my daily art practice. One thing for sure, I was happy. I had waited a lifetime to get back to art—something I loved as a school girl and college student. There's something here about the unbridled mind, the untroubled mind. There's something here about joy.
September 2025
Ellen June Wright’s abstract expressionism revolves around the power of color and the emotions and memories they evoke. She is inspired by the work of Stanley Whitney, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Frank Bowling, Howardena Pindell, Jamaican Artist Cecil Cooper and others. Her art appears in LETTERS, Gulf Stream Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, Breakwater Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Hole In The Head Review, Oyster River Pages, Kitchen Table Quarterly, NOVUS Literary Journal and elsewhere. Her work was included in the 2024 Newark Arts Festival and featured at the Hackensack Performing Arts Center in NJ.
Art: Ellen June Wright, Diptych #1306, #1509, watercolor on paper