Eleanor Spiess-Ferris (born July 3, 1941) is an American

symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

painterYood, James, Artforum International, reviews Zaks Gallery, September, 1991 cited as a significant surrealist,Marcus, Stanley, Exploring Imaginary Subjects, Watercolor ’88, American Artist Magazine, 1998 narrative figurative and feminist artist."Eleanor Spiess-Ferris: An Artist’s Journey" – Charles Wustum Museum – Racine, Wisconsin – essay by Estella Lauter Her numerous visual works display powerful influences of the Spanish and Native American cultures of Northern New Mexico, where she grew up. They often reference Penitentes (New Mexico), retablos, Kachinas and Native American fetishes and frequently incorporate themes of feminist spirituality,Krantz, Ed, Sketches, Orchards and Dark Ponds, Safety-Kleen Gallery One, Elgin Community College, Elgin, Illinois. Indo-European mythology and personal memory.Holg, Garret
Eleanor Spiess-Ferris, Symbolism
College of Lake County articleWright, Robert T., The Magpie Chronicles, College of Lake County, Illinois

Life

Spiess-Ferris was born on July 3, 1941, in Las Vegas, New Mexico and raised on a small farm there. Her mother, Harriette, descended from early Spanish settlers in the territory. Her father, Waldo Spiess, was an attorney of German/Irish/Mexican heritage who became Chief Justice of the New Mexico Appellate Court. She earned her BFA at the University of New Mexico and attended the Chicago Art Institute. She married Chicago artist and toy designer Mike Ferris (1938– 2000) in 1962. They had two children, artist

Emil Ferris Emil Ferris (; born 1962) is an American writer, cartoonist, and designer. Ferris debuted in publishing with her 2017 graphic novel ''My Favorite Thing Is Monsters''. The novel tells a coming-of-age story of Karen Reyes, a girl growing in 1960s C ...

and Michael Ferris, Jr., a New York sculptor married to New York artist Rosemarie Fiore. She and her husband lived briefly in Albuquerque and returned to Chicago in the late 1960s.

Work

Spiess-Ferris has created a large body of widely shown works in oil, gouache and Conté crayon over a span of more than four decades, and have included ceramics in her later period. She populates her visual landscapes with human forms – often women, often truncated or morphed – integrated with vividly rendered, precise images of animals, plants and natural phenomena. Her works evoke and blend mythological, spiritual, psychological, environmental and feminist themes in dreamlike contexts. She draws deeply on her childhood in the high country of northern New Mexico – its landscape and ethnic cultures – where, as youngest of four siblings, she spent much of her playtime alone, exploring her parents’ overgrown apple and plum orchard, observing transformative cycles of life. She plays with the ideas of

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

art by morphing figures of women into roots, trees, leaves and birds, yet diverts from them, keeping her figures subconsciously distant, always in the process of formation and evolution. Her work integrates elements of surrealism, symbolism and expressionism and cites Hieronymus Bosch,

Paul Delvaux Paul Delvaux (; 23 September 1897 – 20 July 1994) was a Belgian painter noted for his dream-like scenes of women, classical architecture, trains and train stations, and skeletons, often in combination. He is often considered a surrealist, alt ...

and James Ensor among disparate artists who have influenced her artistic development. Spiess-Ferris has also produced poetry and short fiction much in the same surrealist-narrative vein as her visual art. Spiess-Ferris is a Figure Painting and Drawing instructor on the faculty of The Art Center of Evanston Illinois.Evanston Art Center
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Awards

Spiess-Ferris has received numerous major art awards and citations including Artist-in-Residence grants at Anchor Graphics and Paper Press, Chicago, Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Grant and a Vielehr Award from

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

Major exhibitions

* 2014: "Inside the Outside Imagism," Chicago Hyde Park Art Center * 2013: “Fecundity,” Packer Schopf Gallery * 2012: “Ophelia’s Gardens” Printworks, Chicago, “Ophelia’s Garden, JRB Gallery, Oklahoma City. * 2011: “Shallow Waters,” Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota * 2010: Elgin Community College, Safety-Kleen Gallery One, Elgin, Illinois - Sketches, Orchards & Dark Ponds – Catalog – essay by Ed Krantz. “Paintings of a Suffering Planet” – Western Illinois University, Macomb, Ill. * 2009: “Sorrows of Swans” – Printworks Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Gouache on Paper. “Sorrows of Swans” – Chicago Cultural Center, Mich. Ave. Gallery, Chicago, Oils on Linen, “Sorrows of Swans. Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois, Sorrows of Swans – Catalog - essay by James Yood * 2006: “Water and Other Wise” – Packer Gallery, Chicago, Illinois. “The Magpie Chronicles” – Robert T. Wright community Gallery of Art, College of Lake County, Grayslake, Illinois The Magpie Chronicles – Catalog – essay by Garrett Holg * 2002: “Regeneration” – Zaks Gallery, Chicago, Illinois * 1999: “New Works” – Zaks Gallery, Chicago, Illinois * 1996: “The Goddess Series” – Shircliff Gallery of Art, Vincennes University, Vincennes, Indiana * 1994: “Works on Paper” – Zaks Gallery, Chicago, Illinois * 1992: “The Goddess Series” – Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan, “Eleanor Spiess-Ferris: An Artist’s Journey” - University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, Green Bay, Wisconsin. “Eleanor Spiess-Ferris: An Artist’s Journey” – Charles Wustum Museum – Racine, Wisconsin . "Eleanor Spiess-Ferris: an Artist’s Journey" – Catalog – essay by Estella Lauter * 1990: “New Works” – Zaks Gallery, Chicago, Illinois * 1989: Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City, Missouri. University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin * 1987: “Beamish Mummery” – Chicago Cultural center, Chicago, Ill * 1984: “New Works, Eleanor Spiess-Ferris” – van Stratten Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

References

External links

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Evanston Art Center

The Center for Humans and Nature
Gavin van Horn essay on Eleanor Spies-Ferris
Packer Schopf Gallery
Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois
Chicago Hyde Park Art Center

Light Fantastic Books, A Rose in Bloom

The website of Spiess-Ferris's son Michael Ferris, Jr.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spiess-Ferris, Eleanor 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters 1941 births Living people Symbolist painters 20th-century American women painters 21st-century American women painters People from Las Vegas, New Mexico