Book Release

On Painting and the Nature of Work

With contributions from Terry Castle and Bett Williams

ISBN 979-8-9913467-2-6

Hardcover, 9.5 x 6.3 in. / 288 pages, full color
Design by Luminosity Lab; printing by robstolk 

Artist Amy Ellingson recounts and examines the events of a year-long flow state, shaped by the intense pressure of preparing a major exhibition, during which she contends with the deep mysteries of painting, reckons with her artistic forebears, and wrestles with existential questions.

"This is a gripping and alive integration of influences, magical transmissions, insights into composition and vision that open doors for the reader to help us see our own world with more color and clarity. Amy Ellingson's zest for life frees her to be self-aware about her aesthetics and her emotions with an infectious sincerity and commitment to understand. In the tradition of Anne Truitt's Prospect, this could easily become a classic for painters and art lovers alike." —Sarah Schulman

 
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In 2016, Amy Ellingson embarked on the task of mounting a major solo exhibition of paintings. As she prepared to push herself to the limit in the studio, a chance encounter with a hummingbird hovering inches from her face spurred an extended flow-state experience.

In this state, time is elastic. Perception sharpens, dreams intensify, and a pattern of synchronicities and signals accumulates around the work. Companion guides—both real and fictional—appear, prompting a deep questioning of what it means to spend a life making art. Ellingson intersperses the logistics of creating paintings with poetic association and inquiry, opening onto the larger questions of devotion, mortality, and meaning.

Recounted with candid sensitivity through prose and poetry, and supported by generous artwork reproductions, On Painting and the Nature of Work proposes that the rigors of art making can be genuinely, unforgettably transformative.