Ethel, born in Soviet Estonia. is a figurative artist. Her main medium is oil (and acrylics) on canvas. Her paintings, featuring alien-like beings, are inquiries into the theme of interconnection.
Ethel started her art studies at the age of 10 in Children's Art School of Tartu. After she finished the 5 year program, she continued with extra classes before she went for a long break with her artistic exploration as she immersed herself in academic world. Always interested in digging deeper into what's behind everything, she became fascinated with psychology and ethics, but could not find in the academic world what she was really seeking. During Master Studies in Anthropology of Religions she started feeling resistance towards academic ways, while becoming increasingly curious about what cannot be said in strictly defined language. She longed to feel the awe and no study could provide her that. The sense of awe she experienced through connecting with natural world and deepening her understanding of self and the other. That grew to be her greatest source of inspiration. Ethel's art has intellectual, emotional and spiritual content, which continues exploring the subjects she was interested in during her studies. In August 2010 Ethel came to Java, Indonesia to work on her Theses (Ethics of Othering in Post Modern Eco Theology) and birthed a fairy-tale-style novel instead (published in 2014, in Estonia). At the same time she started painting again and doing photography. With each of the disciplines she seeks to touch upon something potent, hidden beyond the surface, something that truly matters and oftentimes eludes definition. In less than two years of painting Ethel had her first solo exhibition in Jogjakarta, Java, and her work was featured in an annual art show of widely celebrated artists of Java, Indonesia, held in Syang Art Space, Magelang. She sold her first paintings before she ever had an exhibition. In 2012 Ethel went on to discover Bali, where she continued focusing on painting, until she returned from tropical Indonesia to her freezing homeland Estonia in December 2017. |