Statement: Eisley’s pieces, not always painted on old objects, uses repurposing in a different way. Typically her oil and watercolor paintings are of humans with animal heads. The idea of taking something that is normal and familiar to us (the human body) and then adding a proportionately sized head from another creature makes the viewer question what is it that makes us human and just as important, what makes me, me.
“Although I love the myriad expressions of the human face, by substituting animal heads I hope to render my paintings archetypal and symbolic. The people lose their individual personas but gain deeper meanings.
The only difference between humans and really anything else is the persona. When the persona is removed what remains is a pure being. To then add back in costume and foppery and hand gesture and prop is to give this being symbol and perhaps root them in an era. This layering is often, ironically, superficial, drawing attention to our perceptions of these superficial items or to how our personas are often like animals (and vise-versa!).
I paint to try to capture a timelessness or emotion, a notion of the Other, and of our humanness and animal natures. My animal headed people are then vehicles to carry that idea. Traditionally our cultures painted zoomorphic images to represent spirituality, aspects of God, a timeless force. I hope my Animeoples (animal-people) tap into this mystic, this spirit, as modern day totems and their everyday existence, just as we are spiritual people living everyday lives.”
