In a time of stress, there is nothing like uplifting art to provide a sanctuary for the heart and soul. You will find that in Elizabeth Greene’s eclectic new exhibition, “Island Joy,” at the West Tisbury library through the end of November.
Greene is jubilant when speaking about her artwork. She recalls how she came to art, beginning with photography in high school: “I learned about composition, and began to appreciate light and shadow.” An experience in college changed things for a while. “I took one art class where the teacher put everyone’s art up, and then ripped us all apart. I thought, ‘I guess I’m not an artist.’”
Twenty years later, Greene moved to the Island, and began taking care of a young boy with an art studio. “He had paints and markers. I would start playing with his stuff, and realized, I’m not bad. But it was about the doing, not the result. It felt so good to put color on paper.”
Color and paper called to her again in a different way during a winter storm in 2018 when she was snowed in for two days. Greene started ripping magazine paper to create collages. She says, “My favorite medium was inspired by Matisse and his paper cutouts. And I find paper ripping and cutting to be most therapeutic. It’s bringing me so much joy. Collage is my favorite thing to do. It is recycled art that would otherwise be in a landfill or burned. I’m making it into something, which makes me very happy.”
Greene adores the colors and gloss of the magazines, which she overlays with a transparent coating that gives them a physical and visual texture. Her intricate layering is evident in “Great Blue Heron,” with the elegant bird perched on a dock, looking out over a shimmering waterscape created by a multitude of blue strips. The strips, hand-torn from magazine pages instead of being cut, have rough edges that evoke rippling water.
Like “Great Blue Heron,” other collages, such as the single fruit in “Kelsey’s Anniversary Pear,” the overflowing floral arrangement in “Tulips,” and a mom and two chicks in “Mother Hen,” are modest in size. However, Greene is not afraid to work on a large scale.
The intricate layering of her evocative colors in “Menemsha Summer Sunset” is mesmerizing. Silhouetted black figures — fishermen, frolicking children, and an embracing couple — line the jetty. The work won a blue ribbon at the Ag Fair and a special award at the All Island Art Show.
Greene’s several entries for the Ag Fair poster are filled with appealing critters. In the 2023 version, a large white-and-black spotted cow looks endearingly out at us with flirty eyes above which Greene sneaks in an image of the Vineyard. The same cow appears in the 2020 version, here accompanied by a very pink pig and a brown horse, all walking away, butts humorously facing us. Their hoofprints mark the receding yellow road down to the Ag Hall. Greene sneaks in a flying skillet over the red tractor in the far distance, sailing high up in the clouds. “I always like including these little things you can see once you look deeper.”
Greene works in other media. “Misty Meadows Moon” is a long, narrow, moody acrylic landscape. A full moon shines in the upper left, illuminating the fence-lined field with a single horse grazing in the background. The bare trees seem to echo the silence of the night and the tranquility of the scene.
Greene also paints delicate watercolors. “I love their spontaneity. There are things you can’t predict,” she says about the liquid medium. One of the many in the exhibit, “Morning in Menemsha,” depicts a red fishing harbor just in front of the Coast Guard Station. The two telephone poles stand like sentinels, with their reflections appearing in the water, evoking a familiar moment in the small village. “Mornings in Menemsha are just as special as evenings,” she says.
Returning to her artistic roots, many of Greene’s pieces begin as photographs, which she then may render in other materials. Sometimes, the photograph is the finished work itself, as in “Lambert’s Cove Beach.” On the bitterly cold day, the colors in the blue sky and water, beige sand, and brown scrub brush pop. In another, “Terns and Gulls on Lagoon,” Greene captures the immediacy of the two species in a flutter at her human presence as she approaches them in her kayak.
As you leave the room, you will see a series of delightful acrylic paintings of sea creatures on board. She has made the multicolored squid, pink hermit crab, dancing seahorses, and arching whale into designs on kids’ T shirts, which are available at the show.
Greene is a passionate artist who has lived and worked on Martha’s Vineyard for more than 30 years. She is in constant awe of the Island’s beauty and diversity, and hopes to capture this feeling in her art: “I hope all the happiness I put into these pieces makes people happy to live here, because this place is so special.”
“Island Joy” is on view at the West Tisbury Public Library. For more information, visit Elizabeth Greene’s website, elizabethgreene.net.
