Eleanor Annand

Interdisciplinary

Lives and works in Western North Carolina
(b. 1981, American)

“Having a background in graphic design has had a strong influence on my style and trajectory. My design education turned me onto the Bauhaus movement and introduced me to Joseph and Anni Albers. Through design, I began to understand the importance of materials and craft, and fell in love with the tactile nature of letterpress printing and weaving.”

Details

ARTIST STATEMENT

In my work, I bring a sensitivity to materials, form, and composition as a means for exploring the human condition. Seeking to create a sense of tension and equilibrium, I utilize intuitive and analytical processes that push and pull off of one another. Paintings become frenetic histories of raw emotions, sculptures capture and suspend moments in time, modular compositions are constructed and deconstructed to mimic our constant state of flux. There is a meditation to all of it.

Unbound to one medium, I shift ideas from painting and printmaking into sculpture, installation, and video. This approach allows me to respond to form and material from multiple vantage points and encourages me to work energetically and untethered to expectation.

ABOUT

Eleanor Annand grew up on the southern coast of North Carolina, near the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
In 2003 she received her Bachelors of Graphic Design from North Carolina State University where she concentrated her studies on typography and letterpress.
After a range of design and letterpress experience, from IBM to Yee-Haw Industries, she landed in the Core Fellowship program at Penland School of Craft where she investigated printed, drawn, carved, and painted lines on paper, metal, and enamel.
In 2012 she relocated to Asheville, NC, where she was cofounder and creative director of 7 Ton Design and Letterpress Company.
In the Fall of 2017 she returned to Penland School of Craft as a resident artist. She has spent the last 3 years exploring the sculptural potential of paper by creating folded paper forms, cast paper, and cardboard installations.
Eleanor’s work centers on the intersection of art and design. Using meditative processes as a catalyst for calming compositions, her work evokes a soothing visceral response.
Over the past 10 years her work has been shown regionally, nationally, and internationally.