From Ennis, Texas
Artist Statement:
In spite of our love of technology and the idea of progress, I believe the basic character of our collective experience remains essentially unchanged. Our most elemental needs and desires are the same as when we first became sentient enough to write history and to create explanatory myths. For this reason, certain images and ideas consistently appeal to us, and certain behaviors remain constant. It's my observation that anything that isn't hard science or math qualifies as myth. It may appear erratic and contradictory, but the pattern that emerges from this “mythology” represents a vast store of knowledge. It provides answers to some of our most important questions. And though we are constantly drawn to it, we largely choose to ignore it, because we must do what we feel rather than what we know. These are concepts I have explored and developed over many years. In doing so, I have created works that reflect on our connections to ourselves, to each other, and our relationship with nature. These works are produced using traditional materials sometimes combined with lesser, abject, or utilitarian material.
Artist Biography:
Celia Eberle grew up in the Piney Woods of East Texas. She received her BFA with Honors from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1974, and dates her professional career from her inclusion in Women of the Big State, juried by Lisa Phillips in 1986. Eberle began developing her theories regarding the interrelationship of behavior patterns, myth, and the persistence of images while a member of the historic co-op 500X Gallery from 1987-1992. She has had more than seventeen solo exhibits, and her work has been included in shows in Buffalo, New York; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago. She has garnered awards that include the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Individual Support Grant, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, the Nasher Sculpture Center Microgrant, the Dozier Travel Grant from the Dallas Museum of Art, and an M-AAA/NEA Fellowship. In 2014, she held a one person exhibit at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont. In 2017 she was included in Commanding Space: Women Sculptors of Texas at the Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, and To See is to Have at the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio. Public collections include the Dallas Museum of Art, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, and the J. Wayne Stark Gallery at Texas A&M. She believes that, in spite of our love of technology and progress, the basic character of the human experience remains essentially unchanged.