Artist finds the art in ordinary objects
When Elliott Night was a child, she enjoyed concocting elaborate costumes and putting on performances in her family’s living room.
“Then when I about 9 years old, I got into cartooning, melted crayon art and collage,” she recalls. “Now I love working with found objects like smashed cans, dented mallets, chewed pencils, half-destroyed baseballs – lots of torn and tatty stuff.”
Night’s most recent work features a whimsical series of assemblage art pieces.
“I call them ‘Dancing Sticks,’ and they have an amazing amount of attitude. I put baby shoes on different kinds of bodies. Vintage baby shoes from the 1950s and ’60s send me over the moon,” she says enthusiastically.
She hopes that people will connect with the individual personality of each piece.
“Inspiration just comes over me like a mist,” Night says. “Like when I discover an old mallet at a garage sale, I will see a face staring back at me – a wrinkle or crack becomes the mouth. Sometimes when I look at a bunch of colorful baby spoons, I see arms and hands. When I go into my studio to look around, all these different parts are just shouting out to me, ‘Hey, I will make an awesome head,’” she says, laughing.
Before Night came to Concord in 2016, she had moved around a lot.
“I was most recently in Seattle. But when I was working for Microsoft, I was able to live in Asia for three years, which I loved,” she says.
She currently works at Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), where her job is to connect clinical therapists with children in the county’s foster care system.
Night first started selling her work in the 1990s. “It warms the cockles of my heart to know that someone else gets enjoyment from something I’ve created. When I’m making art, everything else falls away. It’s awesome.”
Her work is on display and for sale at the aRt Cottage, 2238 Mt. Diablo St., Concord, during the 8th annual Holiday Boutique through Dec. 21.
Lisa Fulmer is a marketing consultant, published author and a community arts advocate.