Eileen Braun Artist Biography
A native of Massachusetts, Eileen Braun began formal arts training began at C. W. Post College (Long Island, New York) and continued at Indiana University (Bloomington) where she was awarded a B. A. degree in Sculpture and Education. Her ceramics training was acquired at local Arts Centers and Regional Workshops. Ms. Braun has taught in public schools, served as Executive Director of a suburban New York Arts Center, and also has experience as a Museum Gift Buyer and Manager. Ms. Braun completes the majority of her work in her Atlanta, Georgia home studio.
Ms Braun’s work is heavily influenced by her interest in nurture and science. As a child, dinnertime conversations were a blend of her mother’s attending to the growing family needs and her father’s sharing updates from the scientific community – specifically his occupation: testing metallurgical samples – often by x-ray.
Her current sculptural work in many ways blends these two. She creates biomorphic forms (species) that appear to be communicating human-like emotional needs < nurture>. These newly formed organisms represent a new species conjured in the studio by cross-breeding insects, fish and vegetation. Their skeletal hulls revealing a phase of their life cycle, living in colonies. One can contemplate their offstage evolution: the desiccated hull revealing germ, the pending emergence of new life from chrysalis. The ectoplasm now peeling away from the structure, miraculously composed of metal, revealed <x-rays>.
Although the work is 3D they are very much drawings in space. The shadows they cast are informed by the often changing light passing through- changing one’s perception of space.
Ms Braun came to this new mixed use of materials when frustrated with the limits clay, her previous material of choice, had put on her creative exploration- a deep well of ideas waiting to be explored. She spent time looking at all forms of visual art, visiting art and hardware stores – accumulating potential materials. . Her home studio is now filled with an accumulation of materials. Months of experimentation led her to this juncture. She enjoys the tactile manipulation of materials as the form grows in her hands. The unexpected leaps as the work diverts from the initial drawing plan. Her mind and hands delve into the cornucopia of delights accumulated through visual references and physical supplies awaiting to be transmogrified.