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Richard C. Elliott: Eidetic Variations/Central Core

February 5 – 25, 2006

Larson Gallery hosts “Eidetic Variations/Central Core,” featuring the reflector paintings and digital prints of Ellensburg artist, Richard C. Elliott.

Elliott is widely recognized in the Northwest for his large-scale installations created by means of a unique patented process using thousands of industrial reflectors, including Yakima Sundome’s “Circle of Light,” which was funded by the Washington State Arts Commission and Yakima County.

His artistic style utilizes light, color and radiant geometric patterns. His medium, industrial grade reflectors, allows him to paint with light.

Reflectors are made from the highest quality light translucent acrylic with a diamond pattern in the back that captures light and spins it back out toward its source. Elliott combines this light active medium with two-dimensional geometric designs similar to patterns found from the Arctic Circle to the Amazon jungle. These designs, echoing the patterns within us, have connected people to the living fabric of life since the dawn of time. They create a meditative and instinctive response of harmony. A ‘reflective light painting’ is an ever-changing representation of the fundamental patterns of energy, reflecting nature on both the macro and micro levels.

Elliott’s latest body of work has emerged in the pursuit of the idea that the cosmos is a ‘radiant field of energy.’ While drawing a landscape of the Kittitas Valley 25 Years ago, Elliott had a defining experience, an epiphany, occurred.  In the deepest part of his being he felt the breath and pulse of the earth. That Gestalt experience of the living earth has become the center of Elliott’s artistic passion. Intuition has guided the development of his unique style, one that strives to capture the energy and feeling of that epiphany. This vision has evolved over time. He now combines the medium of reflectors with primary colors and geometric structures to symbolize the fundamental patterns of energy that he experienced that day.

Radiant geometric patterns form the foundation of Elliott’s work. The series, Eidetic Variations, is an in-depth exploration of the basic structure of 13,375 possible patterns within tightly chosen parameters. The sequence has been editioned as one hundred and eighty-five 17”x34” archival inkjet prints.

Elliott created Central Core, eighty-five 32”x32” reflector paintings exploring the core of radiant geometric pattern, which was inspired by the study of Eidetic Variations. These eighty-five patterns define the centers for all radiant geometric images.

Elliott was born in Portland, Oregon and received a degree in art from Central Washington University and in 2000 was named Distinguished Alumni of the School of Arts & Humanities. A Western States Arts Federation fellowship provided him with the opportunity to study at Portland’s Neon Art and Tube Bending School in 1993. Influences on Elliott’s work include his experiences as a VISTA volunteer with the Eskimos in Alaska and the Makah tribe in Washington.

The exhibit continues through February 25, 2006. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm. For more information, call (509) 574-4875.