Theresa Esterlund is a collage artist living in Arlington, Virginia, whose mixed media artwork explores concepts of memory, imagination, relationships, identity, and place. She layers a variety of materials with acrylic and ink to communicate layers of ideas and meanings. Theresa is passionate about arts education and has spent much of her career as an educator working in art museums and participating in community arts projects. She had taken art classes at various schools, including The Art League School, Penland School of Crafts, and Corcoran College of Art and Design, and she is a member of The Art League and the Arlington Artists Alliance. Her artwork has been shown in the Washington, DC, area and in Richmond, Virginia, and is included in the art collection of the Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The nature of collage – bringing disparate or unusual items together to express something new – enables me to communicate layers of ideas and meanings. Through my artwork, I explore memory, imagination, relationships, identity, and a sense of place. My creative process may be initiated by a particular theme, concept, or composition, or the materials themselves may be the inspiration, and connections and messages emerge organically as the work progresses. Materials include ephemera like antique postcards and letters, photographs, postage stamps, sheet music, dress patterns, art papers, and pages from recycled books and vintage magazines. I layer with acrylics and ink, sometimes altering surfaces or adding 3-dimensional items, such as broken jewelry, buttons, fabric or natural materials (shells, twigs, dried flowers).

I am currently working on two series: Pyramid and Utopia. Using different approaches to collage, both series are intended to evoke imaginative and mysterious places. To further a create sense of intimacy and bring the viewer deeper into these worlds, the works in both series are quite small. The pyramid collages are inspired by a 1940s book with graphic cross-sections and diagrams of Egyptian pyramids. Focusing on line, composition, and movement, I layer the black-and-white linear images from the book with acrylics, inks, various types of paper, and text or images from old books. While not literally “about” pyramids, these works do aim to present a spirit of magic, mystery and wonder. The works in my Utopia Series are explorations of imagination that pay homage to Joseph Cornell. Using a topographical map of Mount Everest as the common background of these collages, I situate images, often of children or women, in nostalgic, dreamlike settings that create a sense of stepping into a story. Many of the Utopia works express themes of introspection, feminine identity, and life journeys; as a body of work, they aim to take the viewer through the fantastical scenes to a place of personal reminiscence or discovery.