Elise Wells is an installation artist based in southwestern Pennsylvania. In addition to an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art, she has earned her stripes as an Army veteran during a tour in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 where she served as a recovery vehicle operator. She is drawn to charged materials such as fur, bone, wood, salts and textiles. While Elise primarily works through installation, she is also a painter and photographer.

My art is about the patriotism of the human body: its relationship to death, the earth, its vulnerability and its resilience. I am concerned with depicting human survival and the generational transference of collective cultural memories that are passed on and remain in our DNA. The drawings and paintings are cut out of their environment and placed into a large-scale installation to tell a story with no ending. The stories I want to tell are part past, part future; part mine and part other.

To see more, visit the artist’s website.