Ellen Weitkamp’s work examines the passage of time through the lens of memory, domestic space, and the quiet moments that often go unnoticed. Weitkamp is drawn to the subtle emotional residue left behind in familiar environments: how a pause in conversation was so quiet the wind outside could be heard or how the sunlight streaming through the window made her notice the cracks in her ceiling. Through painting and printmaking, Weitkamp seeks to make tangible what is fleeting: the tension between remembering and forgetting, permanence and impermanence.
Working primarily in oil paint, her process begins with quick, uncomposed phone photographs taken from her everyday life. These serve not as endpoints, but as catalysts for re-seeing. By editing, layering, and reconfiguring these images, she moves beyond mere documentation to a place where memory, perception, and emotion intersect. In painting, she explores how the physical act of mark-making parallels the instability of recollection, and how gestures can reveal what words cannot.
The spaces she depicts function as vessels for both personal and collective memory. They invite viewers to inhabit the in-between moments of transition where time slows and meaning lingers. Her practice is ultimately an attempt to preserve the impermanent, to hold onto the small, transient details that define our sense of presence. In each composition, she aims to infuse a heightened presence, a subtle nuance of the mundane, and a conscious effort to capture the unrepresentable, the ephemeral nature of time.
Ellen Weitkamp (she/her) received her MFA from Boston University in 2024, and her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2019. She currently resides in Portland, Maine.
For pricing and exhibition inquiries please email weitkampellen(@)gmail.com or use the form below: