Current Exhibition:
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Embodied Transformations
Elsabe Dixon | Sharon Fishel
May 29 – June 29, 2025
Artists’ Reception: Sunday, June 1, 4 - 6 pm
Artists’ Talk: Sunday, June 29, 2 pm
Two DMV artists, Sharon Fishel and Elsabe Dixon, investigate transformations in nature and ask the
question: “What is embodied?”
Both artists excavate and embed suggested forms or actual subject material in their work. Sharon Fishel’s layered oil paintings capture forms that appear to be caught in motion, reverberating the echoes of poetic and emotive spaces, while Elsabe Dixon is interested in embedding insect-made materials into small and large compositions that read like field notes or natural samples. Dixon has focused on using worm spun and industrial silk, beeswax, cochineal dye, Spotted Lanternfly wings as well as oak gall to complete a series of field notes, observations or investigations from past community engagement projects.
Through the traditional methods of oil painting, building layer upon layer of color, texture, and
transparency, Sharon Fishel “grows” transformational forms - and in doing so suggests moments in the natural life cycle of living plants.
Her living surfaces on which she imprints plants into complex compositions, reflect the ephemeral nature of the ecosystems that she observes, sparking a poetic impulse. Her first impression of what painting could be, came to her many years ago while reading a Haiku written by Matsou Basho.
How we instinctively long for disappearing and difficult natural-scapes, grounds us firmly in the Vanitas belief mantra that all things pass away. How do we remember and embody this?
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Top: Elsabe Dixon, Sericulture Notes and Insect Interactions (detail),
Silk, flax, cotton and paper. 2’ x 4’
Bottom: Sharon Fishel, Umbria (detail), Mixed media, 24” x 18”
The Athenaeum Visual Arts Program is supported, in part, by an Arts Program grant from the City of Alexandria.
Sharon Fishel Artist Statement
My paintings are about physical sensations made from the rich earthy ingredients of oil paint. Each painting contains forms that appear to be caught in motion, reverberating off one another. As I layer the paint, excavate and embed both printed and invented forms, they reflect my own notion of painting as a poetic and emotive space, resonating and psychologically healing. I am interested in slowing down the perception of the viewer, making them more conscious of both the physical and psychological sensation of their own perceptions and humanity.
I am fascinated by the movements of plants that I observe in my garden going through their life cycles. I collect samples of these plants and use them as sources in my paintings. I often use cast shadows of dried plant forms or apply paint directly to their living surfaces, imprinting them into my paintings. The movements I have observed in these plants forms such as radiating, spiraling, exploding, falling, opening and closing are all reflected upon as natural and symbolic states in my work. I use “the garden” as a metaphorical place, a landscape of human emotions referencing my own psychological journey. Through the traditional methods of oil painting building layer upon layer of color, texture and transparency, I “grow” these transformational forms suggesting individual moments in the natural life cycle of living forms as well as reflecting upon the impermanent nature of the world that we all live in. My first impression of what painting could be, came to me many years ago while reading a Haiku written by Basho. That poetic impulse has remained with me and has continued to sustain my painting practice.
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Elsabe Dixon Artist Statement
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I have used archival and analogue journal processes to turn everyday insect encounters from past projects, into a collage of material possibility, and research, for the 21st century’s difficult eco conversations. The process and techniques of working, collaborating and interacting with insects has developed over many years of intimate engagement, observation and multiple collaborations with insects and the public. Field Notes I, and Field Notes II, display layers of insect by-products such as cochineal ink, beeswax, and worm-spun silk as well as Spotted Lanternfly wings and Oak Gall ink – recalling interactive projects of cross-species affinity.