Ele Willoughby
Modern Renaissance woman Ele Willoughby is both an artist and an scientist who uses visual art to communicate science to a broad audience. Since earning her PhD in physics in 2003, she has worked as a marine geophysics research scientist in academia and government while simultaneously building her printmaking portfolio, making prints about the history of science, natural history and interactive art, incorporating colour-changing or electrically conductive inks and electronics, which straddle the art/science divide. She was also an astronaut candidate during the Canadian Space Agency’s last job search. She lives and works in Toronto, with her husband and young son.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I am interested in Cabinets of Curiosity (or wonder - the wunderkammer) kept by avid amateurs from
the Renaissance up until 19th century. People had huge collections of natural wonders: rocks, gems, fossils, butterflies, shells, bones, all sorts of plants and animals, real and imaginary. Science and magic were still intertwined. These collections both fostered myth (such as narwhal horns passed off as unicorn) and the development of descriptive science (including geology, paleontology, botany and zoology). My subjects make up my own wunderkammer (or Cabinet of Curiosity), filled with flora and fauna (both real and imaginary). I blend my art with my love of science and a tribute to the development of descriptive science the curiosity cabinet represents. I also feature characters from the history of science, which is all about wonder. I am fascinated by myth, fairytales, and symbols. If the cabinet of curiosity represents a sort of proto-science, the myth is like the proto-story, the basis for the stories we tell again and again in different ways.
I work primarily as a printmaker, making relief prints employing linoleum and wood. Some of my work also incorporates painting, multimedia, sculpture and electronics.
Modern Renaissance woman Ele Willoughby is both an artist and an scientist who uses visual art to communicate science to a broad audience. Since earning her PhD in physics in 2003, she has worked as a marine geophysics research scientist in academia and government while simultaneously building her printmaking portfolio, making prints about the history of science, natural history and interactive art, incorporating colour-changing or electrically conductive inks and electronics, which straddle the art/science divide. She was also an astronaut candidate during the Canadian Space Agency’s last job search. She lives and works in Toronto, with her husband and young son.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I am interested in Cabinets of Curiosity (or wonder - the wunderkammer) kept by avid amateurs from
the Renaissance up until 19th century. People had huge collections of natural wonders: rocks, gems, fossils, butterflies, shells, bones, all sorts of plants and animals, real and imaginary. Science and magic were still intertwined. These collections both fostered myth (such as narwhal horns passed off as unicorn) and the development of descriptive science (including geology, paleontology, botany and zoology). My subjects make up my own wunderkammer (or Cabinet of Curiosity), filled with flora and fauna (both real and imaginary). I blend my art with my love of science and a tribute to the development of descriptive science the curiosity cabinet represents. I also feature characters from the history of science, which is all about wonder. I am fascinated by myth, fairytales, and symbols. If the cabinet of curiosity represents a sort of proto-science, the myth is like the proto-story, the basis for the stories we tell again and again in different ways.
I work primarily as a printmaker, making relief prints employing linoleum and wood. Some of my work also incorporates painting, multimedia, sculpture and electronics.
$50.00
Linocut print with collage (framed)
10x8"
One of a series of collaged linocut prints of the world's smallest armadillo, the adorably named pink fairy armadillo, each print is embellished with collaged, hand-printed pink Japanese washi papers. The tiny armoured mammal, also known as a pichiciego or Chlamyphorus truncatus, lives in desserts or xerix scrublands of central Argentina. Its paws and dorsal shell armour are printed on assorted patterned papers, so that each version of the 10" x 8" print is unique.
These uncommon tiny armadillos are only 90–115 mm (3.5–4.5 in) long, subterranean and nocturnal. They are rarely seen and their numbers are declining, due to farming, hunting and predation from domestic pets. Sadly they do not survive long in captivity. Its giant forepaws allow it to dig its burrow and explain it's nickname, the "sand-swimmer". It's a unique and adorable animal, and I hope its habitat is protected so it can continue to thrive.
$50.00
Lino block print (framed).
9.50x12"
Limited edition 1 of 30.
This is a linoleum block print, in a rich, dark, coffee-brown on beige (like creamy coffee) coloured Japanese kozo paper, 8" by 10" paper (20.3 cm by 25.4 cm). The frame itself is 9.5" by 12". The print is my illustration of a coffee mug and how the aroma triggers me to remember how much I depend on coffee. The molecule is caffeine, a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid and psychoactive stimulant, which keeps us coming back for more coffee. The molecule contains carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen atoms, each of which are shown somewhat differently. Now, in fairness, I don't think caffeine is what we smell, but when I smell coffee, I know I'm going to get my caffeine fix.
$80.00
Lino block print (framed).
10x20.50"
Limited edition 5 of 6.
A group of bullfinches is a bellowing, and this linocut shows a bellowing bellowing, or singing loudly. I am making a series on the weird and wonderful terms of venery - the collective nouns for groups of animals (and other things). Some are evocative, some strange and obscure. This is the third in a series of such prints.
How could I resist a "bellowing" of bullfinches? We don't actually have bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) here in North America, apart from the odd, very lost, Eurasian stray. They do not appear shy. They do like to sing. I listened to their songs and hear triplets and short strings (tuplets) of likely irrational eighth and sixteenth notes. So, I tried to illustrate my bellowing of bullfinches bellowing their songs in this fashion.
This linoleum block printed bullfinches are printed in black ink on Japanese kozo, or mulberry paper with chine collé breasts in pinkish-orange and dun for the males and females respectively. Each print is 14" by 9.25" or 35.6 cm by 23.5 cm in dimension. The framed print is 10" by 20.5" or 25.4 cm by 52 cm.
$80.00
Lino block print (framed).
10x20.50"
Limited edition 14 of 30.
Jellyfish have such beautiful, fluid, organic lines. This seems to mirror the view of Ernst Haekel, the famed German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist, whose book "Art Forms in Nature" filled with lovely 19th century scientific illustrations of biology inspired my original drawing and then carving in linoleum of this creature.
This is an original lino block print of a jellyfish, printed in white, water-based block printing ink on 'unryu teal' Japanese paper. The paper has many visible fibres, which add to the organic feel of the piece and makes each print rather unique. The edition is limited to 30 prints, each of which are produced by hand. The sheets are 18 cm by 40.6 cm (7 inches by 16 inches). The framed piece is 25.4 cm by 52.1 cm (10 inches by 20.5 inches).
$50.00
Lino block print (framed).
8x8"
Limited edition 11 of 15.
This is a whimsical mini lino block print of the blue Batbearoo, a widely unknown, and quite possibly, completely imaginary composite creature. Despite its looks and its name, the Batbearoo is neither bat nor bear, but a flying marsupial most closely related to the quolls.
The printed area is only 10 cm (3.9 inches) squared. The wings are collaged or chine collé fine translucent blue Japanese paper with visible fibres. Each sheet is 18 cm (7.1 inches) squared and printed on white Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. There are 15 prints in this first edition.
$50.00
Lino block print (framed).
8.00x8.00"
This whimsical miniature linocut is of a creature of my imagination: a mighty walrus sporting delicate butterfly wings.
The walrus is printed on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper with collaged or chine collé wings pale yellow Japanese tama paper (a lightweight watermark tissue). The printed area is only 10 cm (3.9 inches) squared. Each sheet is 18 cm (7.1 inches) squared.
$50.00
Lino block print (framed).
8x8"
Limited edition 13 of 15.
The fabled iceberg squid, a gargantuan arctic squid, who camouflages himself as an iceberg, is the subject of this whimsical mini linocut print. Some believe the iceberg squid is imaginary, but who am I to say?
The printed area is only 10 cm (3.9 inches) squared. The eyes are collaged or chine collé fine pearlescent Japanese paper. Each sheet is 18 cm (7.1 inches) squared and printed on white Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. There are 15 prints in this first edition.
$50.00
Lino block print (framed).
8x8"
Limited edition 1 of 12.
This is my linocut of a Tyrannosaurus (T.Rex) amongst flowers - fierce but pretty.
The block is 10 cm by 10 cm (3.9 inches by 3.9 inches), inked à la poupée (i.e. one block inked in more than one colour, in tiny regions, like as by a little doll our 'poupée'). It is printed on 18 cm by 18 cm (7.1 inch by 7.1 inch) unryu or 'Cloud Dragon' Japanese washi paper, a beautiful tissue with visible silky fibres.
$100.00
Lino block print (framed).
16.00x20.00"
High five! This original, lino block print shows my neighbour, the raccoon.
The text is hand-carved in reverse and printed in red-burgundy water-based block printing ink and the raccoon himself is printed in gray-brown and black on delicate Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper.
$80.00
Lino block print (framed).
11.00x14.00"
The symbols of Ontario, our provincial bird the common loon and our flower the white trilium cover the hand-carved map of Ontario and the Great Lakes in this linocut.
The block was inked 'à la poupée' (with different colours, black, green and yellow, in different areas) and printed by hand on lovely Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. Each print is 23.5 cm by 31.8 cm (9.25" by 12.5").