It Was All A Blur – Evan Stoler & Elizabeth Peck

Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Stoler first started finding his artistic voice while attending Central High School.  Stoler graduated from Denison University in Ohio with a BA in Studio Art and Biology in 2016.  Since then, he has shown a collection of work in Chicago, Milwaukee, Omaha, and completed a ceramics residency in France.

I want to challenge viewers to question the textures, patterns, and organic entities placed before them as I strip materials of their commonplace function. Light is important because it emphasizes a blurred distinction between familiar reflective surfaces and, in some cases, creates a paradox of fragility. I want to make the mundane mystical.

The process used for this series is inspired by my childhood crafts that featured homemade glue-and-marker bookmarks and meals dyed with food coloring. After losing my father to a battle with pancreatic cancer and moving home with my mother because of the pandemic, I find myself surrounded by these childhood memories juxtaposed with thoughts of death, the afterlife, the unknown, and the beyond. The blur from the layering, melting, and reflecting of the glue sheets and their translucent properties provides an entrance into a depth that cannot be measured, yet indicates the passage of time.  The blur is transcendence. I am working toward understanding this internal emotional struggle of simultaneously existing in the past, present, and future. These works are windows into the fourth dimension and allow me to move closer to reconciling existence in all its forms.