Elisabeth Roach ART399 Portfolio

Author/Artist Name

Elisabeth L. Roach, Murray State UniversityFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Winter 12-6-2025

Artist Statement

Artist Statement

Elisabeth Roach

I want to make people uncomfortable with my art. Using drawing, photography, and audio to make striking pieces that blend disciplines, the art is often gross or distorted and is meant to unsettle while conveying a feeling. A large amount of my work is self-portraits, where I distort my own image to convey personal themes: from medical issues to emotions like agony. Using myself as the subject of my work allows me to express myself very directly; and I am greatly inspired by Maria Lassnig’s self-portraits that abstract the form to convey meaning.

In my drawing work, I use colored pencil, often over watercolor. Texture is a big focus in my work, both the tactile texture of my drawing mediums or implied in my photos. Many pieces are focused on texture, alongside lighting. My art has limited intentional color palettes that draw inspiration from color meanings and how that relates to each work’s meaning. Approaching drawing like more like painting, I have started looking towards painters like Francisco Goya as inspiration. Having long had a fascination with process and imperfection, my work often has evidence of the process in it, with sketch lines or intentional flaws like warped paper and blurry photos. Audio art is another medium I have explored. For example, in my piece Sinew, the audio of chewing sounds makes it more uncomfortable as the drawing uses cannibalism as symbolism.

Beauty and horror are not as opposite as many people believe, and horror art does not always equate to negative emotions. A theme I am interested in exploring in my work is the overlap and how horror art can be used as a tool for comfort and self-reflection. Recently, I have started using more body horror inspired by artists like Junji Ito, whose masterful use of body horror has impacted my own imagery, and Mokumokuren, who distorts human figures to vaguer shapes in order to emphasize their work’s themes of humanity and what defines it.

Advisor/Mentor

Mike Martin, Lu Colby, Cintia Segovia Figueroa, April Webb

Description

The work is made primarily of digital photography and drawing using watercolor and colored pencil. All digital photography is 8.5"x11"/11"x8.5". The drawings vary in size but are at smallest 18"x11" as can be seen with pieces #18 and #20. The works also often have an additional aspect like a wooden frame, which can be seen in pieces #1, #8, #9, and #10.

While the pieces vary, they are connected by imagery, many are self-portraits and the pieces often have body horror (#11) or gross imagery (#15). In the body of work, horror is used as a lens to interact with the world, often as representations of pain. This is further emphasized by the number of self-portraits.

Recommended Citation

Roach, Elisabeth L., "Elisabeth Roach ART399 Portfolio" (2025). Professional Practices (ART 399). 191.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/191