Elise Varro

My paintings begin with plant forms but do not stay descriptive for long. I use stems, leaves, and blossoms as a grammar for movement, layering translucent passages until the image feels more atmospheric than illustrative. Printmaking remains close to the work even when the final piece is painted; I think in terms of transfer, pressure, and the way a mark can repeat without remaining identical. I am drawn to botanical imagery because it allows growth, decay, fragility, and structure to exist at once. The paintings are built through glaze, interruption, and revision, so that upward movement is never cleanly resolved. I want a viewer to sense that the image has grown into place rather than been arranged. The work asks how color can carry memory without needing narrative certainty to support it.