Ellen Frances Tuchman

Ellen Frances Tuchman

  • NEWS
  • THE RIBBON PAINTINGS
    • SUSUARRE 2023-2025 (click to expand)
    • examples of RIBBON PAINTINGS (click, then scroll down)
  • RECENT SMALL WORK
  • 2025 EXHIBITION: PAST AND FUTURE PERFECT
  • statement and bio
  • 2012, 2019 EXHIBITION: THE B-SIDE
    • CATALOGUES AND ESSAYS
      • ESSAY BY WILLIAM SARRADET
      • THE B-SIDE REDUX: Artist's Statement June 2019
      • Ellen Tuchman’s “The B-Side” — Learning to Bear Witness by Patricia Mora
    • THE B-SIDE: five components in various arrangements
    • A LITTLE DAB'LL DO YA
    • MODERN ROMANCE
    • BLACK WIDOW
    • QUEEN BEE
    • ICE QUEEN
    • SHE-DEVIL
    • WITCHY WOMAN
    • MURDER OR A HEART ATTACK
    • ON A BENDER
    • OUT OF ORDER
    • UNDUN
    • INSTALLATION PHOTOS
  • 2018 EXHIBITION: R + R: reveries and responses
    • ESSAY
    • CATALOGUES
    • COLOR BY NUMBERS/panpantone (a continuing series of 50+ unique units)
    • INSTALLATION KOELSCH HAUS GALLERY, HOUSTON
    • CATTYWOMPAS
    • IT'S ONLY A HOBBY
  • 2003-05 EXHIBITION: CHAPEL CHROMATICA
  • press
Share
SUSURRARE
2023-2025
Hand-painted paper quills, beads, sequins, found bits and pieces, hand-sewn onto ribbons, mottled acetate resin rings for hanging
Size variable... 50 x 165 x 3 inches fully outstretched without ripples

Susurrare, the sound of waves, is a murmuring meditation on the sea and sky, speaking to ocean pollution and environmental crises. The ribbons connote many moments – Maypole celebrations, rending of funeral rosettes, while calling to mind little girls, fashion, and the feminine mystique. As signifiers of many things, ribbons have a historical weight that contradicts their wispy nature. Methodically hand-stitching hundreds of hand-painted paper quills to the ribbons is devotional.  After many months of working on this piece, I realized it is not a cobalt brushstroke but is the Santa Monica Bay, calling this lemming home.