I have always been interested in connections—between people, between ideas, between ourselves and the environments that shape us. My work explores the visible and invisible systems that influence how we see the world, how we relate to one another, and how we become who we are.

​

The tree has been present in my work for more than thirty years, serving as both structure and symbol. Formally, it functions as a branching system that organizes and connects the composition. Symbolically, it represents life, resilience, human connection, and our relationship to the natural world. The tree reminds us that nothing exists in isolation. Every branch is connected to something larger than itself. For me, the tree is ultimately a connector—a way of visualizing the relationships that shape how we see ourselves and where we feel we belong.

​

Running beneath all of this work is a question about awareness. Why do people see the same situation differently? What allows some people to recognize patterns while others turn away from them? How do power, culture, fear, belonging, and desire shape what we are willing—or unwilling—to see?

​

As a teenager, I was captivated by David Hockney's photographic joiners and the way he combined multiple viewpoints into a single image. Later, at Cornell University, I studied painting, photography, digital imaging, and screen printing, exploring how meaning emerges through relationships between images, ideas, and experiences. Before trees became the defining structure of my paintings, I was already interested in how seemingly unrelated things connect and influence one another.

​

For more than thirty years, I worked as a graphic designer, creative director, and visual marketer, while continuing to make fine art. That experience gave me an inside view of how images shape perception, how desire is constructed, and how cultural values are

Artist Statement (Revised)

How we see shapes how we connect. How we connect shapes who we become. Who we become shapes how we see.

I have always been interested in the relationships that shape our lives, between people, places, ideas, and the environments we inhabit. My work explores how those relationships influence the way we see ourselves, one another, and the world around us.

As a teenager, I was captivated by David Hockney's photographic joiners and the way he combined multiple viewpoints into a single image. At Cornell University, I studied painting, photography, digital imaging, and screenprinting, exploring how meaning emerges through relationships between images, ideas, and experiences. Those early influences taught me that seeing is never fixed. It evolves through experience.

For more than thirty years I worked as a graphic designer, creative director, and visual marketer while continuing to make fine art. That experience gave me an inside view of how images shape perception, how desire is constructed, and how visual culture influences the stories we tell ourselves. It strengthened my curiosity about why people experience the same world so differently.

The tree has appeared in my work for more than forty years. It began as a compositional structure but gradually became something more. Today it serves as a visual language for connection, linking people, memories, places, and ideas. It reminds us that nothing exists in isolation. Every relationship becomes part of a larger story.

Each series builds on the last, reflecting an evolving way of seeing. My early work explored identity, memory, femininity, and cultural expectation. Over time, the boundaries between figure and landscape dissolved as the body became part of nature itself. That journey led to Mutual Power, where relationships became the central subject.

Mutual Power grew from a question that has stayed with me throughout my life:

“What if power is not something we possess, but something we create together?”

Influenced by both the work and friendship of Riane Eisler, social systems theorist, cultural historian, and author of The Chalice and the Blade, the series explores how relationships shape who we become. Her distinction between power over and power with deepened my own thinking about reciprocity, awareness, and connection. Female and male figures merge with branching trees, creating a visual language that reflects connection, reciprocity, awareness, and agency. The work asks how our relationships influence us, what we choose to give, what we are willing to receive, and how those choices shape the people we become.

Making art is how I make sense of the world. Every painting begins with something I've experienced, a place I've been, a relationship that changed me, a work of art that inspired me, or a question I can't stop asking. As each series unfolds, it builds upon the last, reflecting not only the evolution of my work but the evolution of how I see.

My hope is that these paintings invite others to pause, recognize the connections that surround them, and consider how those connections shape their own lives. When we become more aware of those relationships, we gain the freedom to choose what we carry forward, what we leave behind, and who we become.

​

Elaine Lazarus

2026