Painting, collage and photography express the bad, the ugly and what comes out of it. By using art as a means to work through traumas, artists that may otherwise not be expressed. Finding strength in being vulnerable together.

This content deals with personal and potentially triggering issues, viewer discretion advised.

Please email Gallery@makeshiftartspace.org for sales inquiries

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Please email Gallery@makeshiftartspace.org for sales inquiries 〰️

ELLIE WEAVER

Artist name/Pronouns: Ellie Weaver (she/her/hers)
**Title: Mouthfuls of Ash (3)**
*Materials: Fuji X Pro 2 35mm F1.4*
Dimensions: 20x30"
Year Made: 2023
Price: $666 for the set of three
Social Media/ website: http://www.instagram.com/coldhandsofgod

Artist Name: Ellie Weaver
**Title: Death Throes**
*Materials: Lifted Emulsion on Glass*
Dimensions: 4x4"
Year Made: 2022
Price: $111

Artist Statement:

I was born in 1987 in Sarasota, Florida. My parents were into cocaine, but that was the '80s, wasnt it?

The first time I was sexually assaulted I was too young to remember it. The last time I was sexually assaulted I was an adult and I still have trouble remembering it. I don't know why. My mom used to burn me with cigarette butts, but I remember that. When I was in my early 20s my uncle murdered my step mother. She taught me to drive stick. He almost cut her head off according to testimony at the trial. My dad was never the same after that. We don't talk anymore. I am transgender and now nobody in my family talks to me anymore either. I say I don't miss them, but I do. In the future there's an ambulance coming for me. When you hear sirens will you wonder if it's that one?

Artist Name: Ellie Weaver
**Title: Masticated in the Jaws of Heaven**
*Materials: Lifted Emulsions on Paper*
Dimensions: 6x4"
Year Made: 2022
SOLD

Artist Name: Ellie Weaver
**Title: Dysphoria**
*Materials: Ricoh GRIII*
Dimensions: 20x30"
Year Made: 2022
Price: $222

Artist Name: Ellie Weaver
**Title: Artist Self Portrait**
*Materials: Lifted Emulsion on Paper*
Dimensions: 4x4"
Year Made: 2021
Price: $111

Artist Name: Ellie Weaver
**Title: Hissing**
*Materials: Photo Negative on Glass*
Dimensions: 4x4"
Year Made: 2021
Price: $111

Artist Name: Ellie Weaver
**Title: Phantom Pain**
*Materials: Double Lifted Emulsion on Paper*
Dimensions: 6x5"
Year Made: 2021
SOLD

SAMANTHA RUIZ

Artist Statement:

Back in 2015 I chose to attend rehab in an attempt to recover from an eating disorder and the disease of addiction. On the weekend when we had no groups to attend, I sat down with another patient who was decorating her binder with magazine clippings she glued on. We made a mess! Paper EVERYWHERE, stickers and glue in our hair, and for that bit of time we forgot how messed up we felt inside. This series brought me back to that time when I first got sober and made friends with other women who were in recovery. We could not change our past, or erase it, but by sharing our stories with each other we created connection. Together we stayed accountable, encouraged each other and learned new healthy coping skills, art being one of them! During this art process I found collage to be much like dealing with my past. In life, there are things that I have no control over. The only thing I can control is how I respond, and what thoughts I choose to dwell on. In collage, I take existing images and decide how they fit together. Some pieces work, and others I have to let go of. My living room floor is full of books, magazines and paper cut outs. Life is messy, but so is art! I’m learning to enjoy the process.

Samantha Ruiz
**“Champagne Suicide”**
11X14’’
*Mixed media on canvas board*
NFS

Samantha Ruiz
**“The Search for Peace”**
10x10’’
*Mixed media on canvas*
NFS

DESTINY WORMLIGHT

Destiny Wormlight
**“Gloomy Junie”**
*Acrylic on unstretched canvas*
$150

Destiny Wormlight
**“Ha! Sucker”**
*Acrylic on unstretched canvas*
$300

Destiny Wormlight
**“Obligatory self portrait”**
*Acrylic on unstretched canvas*
$250

Artist Statement/Bio:

My ex deleted all the files from my computer including my art I originally planned for this show but i have these large goopy monster paintings so I hope you like them. My name is Destiny and I have a pretty intense coffee addiction and one day I spilled some in my sketchbook and decided to trace it and find cool stuff. Then I decided it’d be cool to paint the coolest things I found. Then, when I painted the little monsters I found in the coffee I realized I was just painting about shit I really hate. Like how much I hate people who just shit out the same stuff they hear without thinking about it, how fucked up and caught in the past religion is, and how we suck the life out of each other. This work helped me move through a lot of shit while also being really fun to make and look at. I really don’t like writing about myself or my art all, but I live in Port Townsend and that’s all I have to say.

BARRETT LIZZA

Artist Bio/Statement:

Down in the basement of an old building exists a creator of sorts, a man of mystery perhaps? Down in the studio Barrett creates multimedia art of all variations but mainly with a darker edge. Ok I’m done with this 3rd person stuff. Yeah I have tried making happy colorful art and it happens once and a while, but it mostly turns out a little ominous. I make all sorts of art from sculptures to interesting lighting creations with antique items. I used to work for a company flying around making art installations for music festivals that was really fun, as well as vip room set ups. But I have children now and just want to be closer to them instead of watching Phish fans high on lsd move around like zombies.

My art before you was made with emotion, the creation process is very therapeutic in many ways to me. Since this exhibit is about emotion, I will tell you my root feelings going on at this time. I was down like most of us during the pandemic and worried of the future. I also on my span of life have just been surrounded by death at a early age and to now. From my father at 12 to my grandparents and before covid a friend to suicide and another during the pandemic as well. And my son getting type 1 diabetes.

What a load of stuff but I honestly don’t want a pity party. But what contemplations comes from this is the value of life and how special it is. We have this life to live and what a special thing that is even though the hardships. To be able to experience all the emotions is a gift, without sadness or grief we would not know what true happiness really is. My artwork is truly feeling based, I feel the imprints are a solid ground, the basics of life, and the lines around it like the maps of life with all its avenues and turns, never perfect and chaotic but in the end a work of art.

You are a work of art my friend.

Artist Barrett Lizza/ He Man
**Title. Da Cross**
*Materials, Oil plot map, acrylics and ink on canvas.*
Dimensions 30”x24”
Year Made 2022
Price $250
Social Media/ website
Instagram @barrettlizza
barrettlizzadesign.com/

Artist Barrett Lizza/ He Man
**Title. Eh Er**
*Materials, Oil plot map, acrylics and ink on canvas.*
Dimensions 12”x11”
Year Made 2022
Price $100
Social Media/ website
Instagram @barrettlizza
barrettlizzadesign.com/
Artist Barrett Lizza/ He Man
**Title. R.22**
*Materials, Oil plot map, acrylics and ink on canvas.*
Dimensions 12”x11”
Year Made 2022
Price $65
Social Media/ website
Instagram @barrettlizza
barrettlizzadesign.com/

Artist Barrett Lizza/ He Man
**Title. Oklahoma**
*Materials, Oil plot map, acrylics and ink on canvas.*
Dimensions 30”x24”
Year Made 2022
Price $250
Social Media/ website
Instagram @barrettlizza
barrettlizzadesign.com/

QUIKDRAW

Artist Statement/Bio:

"The joy of going to the movie theater as a home-schooled child who was allowed television only at certain times."

"The pain of getting a newly bought grocery store toy taken away forever after talking back to arguing parents."

"Mom asking why I don't like her clearly, disgusting chicken noodle soup."

I haven't seen my parents since I was 26. When I goofily tell my mom I'll be 30 soon, she says, "Don't remind me.” It’s not that she isn’t excited for me, she just doesn’t want to think about how she will be older, too. It’s very exciting for my teenage self that couldn’t really fathom getting here.

Sometimes we talk about visits. My mother is unvaccinated and has cancer. I don't know how to navigate it. When I ask her about these logistics, she says, "Right. You're so smart" about being nervous about picking something up at the airport. We awkwardly agree I probably shouldn't visit and try to schedule a video chat lunch.

When I tell my dad I wish we talked more often, he says he was just about to call me. I haven't heard his voice since. When he sends me money "for fun" I use it to buy groceries or pay rent. He was my best friend growing up. We’d tear apart 90’s science kits. Feed hotdogs to the praying mantis that lived on the window sill in the Los Angeles sun. Then I became a woman, even though I didn’t really want to. I think it freaked both us out. He didn’t know how to talk anymore, only yell. Silence meant more sips of beer. He’d tell me I needed to meditate or incense the room, really I was just going through the emotions of a puberty in the wrong direction. He told me flat out I wasn’t a lesbian. I’m not sure why. He chased the guy I lost my virginity to down the block.

You're maybe wondering now; how such depth and vaguity can happen at the same time. And I am too.

BROOKE EOLANDE

Artist Statement:

I’ve been living with mental illness and trauma for as long as I can remember. I feel unmoored and unsure of who I really am. For years I’ve been desperate to figure out what is wrong with me because if I know what it is, maybe I can fix it. Art has helped me to express the feelings I don’t have words for. When people experience my art, I feel seen. It feels like I’ll never exist if I’m never made real in another person’s mind. It’s comforting to think that a long time from now, maybe somewhere far away, someone might connect with my art and for that moment I won’t be entirely alone.

Brooke Eolande
**“Domestic Violence”**
$75
*Acrylic on stretched canvas.*
11”x14”
2021
**You’re not allowed to buy this if you think it’s funny.**

Brooke Eolande
**“Vacation”**
$150
Acrylic on stretched canvas.
12”x12”
2022
**No matter where you go, you’ll always be there.**

MATHEW SCOTT

Artist name/Pronouns: Matthew Scott He/Him
Title: ‘Tomorrow I Will Be Strong’ #4
Materials: digital photography, 35mm, photo paper luster, distressed wood frame painted black,
Dimensions: 20 x 14
Year Made 2023
SOLD

Bio:

Matthew Scott is a photographer and multimedia artist currently based in Bellingham, WA. Matthew has a background in freelance videography and media production, where his work has previously appeared on television and in local film festivals and screenings. His photography has been displayed in the greater Seattle area, most recently at the Pancakes and Booze pop up show.

Artist Statement:

The series of photos displayed are titled ‘Tomorrow You Will Be Strong’ This work focuses on finding contrast within the frame to tell a story: the contradiction of celebration and sadness, the conflict between the internalized emotion and the outward action. What are the differences between the outward and inward perception of self? Which is more true?

Website: www.MScottphotovideo.com

Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/mscottphotovideo/

MOUTHFULS OF ASH // TOMORROW YOU WILL BE STRONG

ELLIE WEAVER

SAMANTHA RUIZ

DESTINY WORMLIGHT

Artist Statement/Bio:

BARRETT LIZZA

Make.Shift Art Space