February First Friday: Elisha Harteis

Start: Feb. 7, 2015, midnight

End: Feb. 7, 2015, 3 a.m.

Blaque Owl is excited to be hosting a ceramics exhibit here this month of February. Her name is Elisha Harteis, and she is a very driven and powerful woman!

Biographical Information
Elisha was born in Butte, Montana, but shortly after, her family moved to Missoula, Montana. She attended Sentinel High School and was encourage to develop her skills in Drawing and Photography.
After High School, Elisha went on to study Surgical Technology at the Missoula Collage of Technology where she received and Associates Degree in Surgical Technology. She practiced in that field for 3 years and then decided to further her education.
Currently, Elisha is attending the University of Montana as a BFA candidate in Ceramics. She plans to obtain her BFA and apply for residencies in Montana where she will be able to give back to the communities that have participated in her education. It will also prepare her for any further education opportunities such as a Post Bachelor and Graduate Schools.

Artist Statement
Every art work, in one way or another, is my expression of negotiating history with my own
relationship to the world. My art is a subjective dance between the fissures of expectation and
experience. My articulations, though potentially limited and, at times, pointed toward something that is not collectively experienced, strive to seek out the moments when & where we can find opportunities to communicate together. Perhaps, they're incomplete, incommensurate, and, more times than not, indulgent; however, I attempt to convey moments where and when personal experience endeavors to participate in forming our interpretations of the world.
The work that I am most passionate about focuses on depictions of children and animals. In this work, I address the social issues of child abuse by juxtaposing the quiet brutality of abuse against the perceived, inherent innocence of children. The familiarity of the narrative context challenges the viewer, creating an unsettling relationship between the audience and the figures. The space between the viewer and figure directly challenges the silence about such issues and, hopefully, calls attention to the myriad of societal issues that we tend to not acknowledge in our daily lives.