Todd Elliott

Todd Elliott
Portland, Oregon, USA

STATEMENT

My sculptures, like my earlier paintings, are collages using graphic, motion and places.

Here, the collages are shapes and images commonly seen in traffic, or any distant travel by road; where we see buildings, signs, trailers and vehicles of all types. These are constructed collages of events from my imagination. I’ve always been fascinated by shiny surfaces, like those on cars, gas station signs and glass, but discovered, these reflections are the sources for my imagination. A few forms have taken shape in my work; MXR, HAULRS, along with a newer relief format, THRU.

In a way, these are solid form collages, much like the modernist Juan Gris painted and rendered collages in Paris, and how motion and speed were dissected and reimagined by the Futurists later. If you notice, much of my work is slightly angled, so to give a sense of motion much like the oblique letters and graphics used to represent speediness. I have used this format for years, a set degree in most of my work, to express this motion.

The MXR objects were first inspired by the profile of concrete mixer trucks (imagine the form without truck and supports). I’m making these sculptures with a variety of woods as a nod to both lumber and more relevant, architecture, which line our roads. The intersecting planes are sign silhouettes of my design, where vehicles and graphics are in constant interaction between the moving and static display. Some of these signs also have small apertures, to illuminate a pattern of light.

HAULR objects are essentially the forms we commonly see around town and local highways, and adding my degree of motion. Trucks pull these containers filled with either aggregate or grain, and are ubiquitous to our highways and roads. Instead of simply using the aluminum most commonly seen on the road, I’m experimenting with varying methods of veneers, papers and fiberglass to make these forms. My collages represent or use materials found in architecture, furniture design as well as other industries into these forms.

THRU is a new series based on older paintings from the early 2000s. Initially, there was a cut through space like a counter in type, suspended in a landscape, representing architecture, graphics and materials. The materials were either represented through paint techniques to look like variegated stone work, and/or the use of custom car paints with metal-flake and candy paint colors. These were constructions were then, visually hovering over a minimal landscape of sky and horizons. Now, I use actual materials,
sometimes referencing painted skylight colors in addition to fine wood, plastic, or metal to combine the collaged images.

I have also created a photo-collage, initially for billboard art in Los Angeles, these are now prints. They use all three of these other series combined. Images also include older paintings I created 15-20 years ago, along with forms from the MXR and HAULR art.

BIO

Prior to going to college, Todd Elliott worked as a graphic designer intern in his hometown of Rockford, Illinois, then moved to New York City to further his experience as a designer. He later graduated from Tufts/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with a BFA in Painting. After teaching art and painting for his first few years out of school, he embarked on graduate studies in Painting and Printmaking graduating with an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. There he changed his methods of art from traditional realism, to more abstract pop images inspired by industrial design techniques, paints, sign graphics and sculpture. After graduating from RISD, Todd received a travel grant from his alma mater MFA, and had his first museum show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Todd also has the distinction of working in the world of commercial art, as a retail showroom designer for IKEA, a prototype colorist for Hasbro Toys, and an apparel graphic designer with Reebok. He has used this experience to teach high school students art and design as well as Pre-College programs. His work is in both personal and corporate collections and he continues to work and teach in Portland, Oregon, teaching in both the Community Education and Foundation Program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA).

ARTIST CONTACT

[click to email]
(617) 480-0920
toddjelliott.com
INSTAGRAM

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