As far back as Elizabeth Monks Hack can remember, art has been a prevalent force in her life—whether it’s music, theater, or fashion. Hack pursued studying painting in college, while earning a degree in studio art from UC Irvine. In her view, gaining as much technical knowledge as possible while still young is the best route for aspiring artists of any medium.
“Once your techniques are down, you are as free as a bird to go in any direction you want.” Hack said. “Art knowledge and skill informs whatever you end up doing; whether it be traditional or conceptual art, graphic design, or mural painting.
“I learned to paint by looking at Mary Cassatt and Pierre Boonard,” she continued. “In college, I was crazy about Richard Diebenkorn and Robert Mangold. I have always been drawn to compositional structure in paintings.”
Influenced by the style of early American modernists, including Charles Sheeler and Charles Demuth, Hack began work on an oil painting series in 2003. As for subject matter, Hack was inspired to capture the simplicity of small town living. The idea struck the artist when she first moved to Lompoc, after living in Los Angeles for many years.
“I moved from Los Angeles to Lompoc—from a dense, unfathomable urban area to a simple, knowable environment,” Hack said. “The visual simplicity of the downtown streets, the nearby ocean, and clearly visible horizon lines inspired me to think of the two-dimensional canvas in a new way: as a place to combine geometric abstraction with the real world I was seeing.”
Hack titled the ongoing series Small Town Abstractions, which she continues to paint pieces for to this day. Many of the series’ latest paintings are currently on display at the Grossman Gallery, located inside the Lompoc Library, and will remain up through July 31.
While painting various buildings, scenery, and other staples known to Lompoc, Hack strives to evoke a sense of history and time passing to each of her works. In The Rice Bowl, for example, Hack uses lines to divide the painting into different points in time. The sun is still out on the left side of the painting, but the sky gets darker and darker as the viewer’s eyes move to the right.
“Using linear divisions and layering, I change the same view from day to night, new to old, foggy to clear, indistinct to clean,” Hack explained. “I also alter colors and light from natural to exaggerated.”
Making Cement, another featured painting in Small Town Abstractions, is also divided into different hours of the day, with clarity and color alternating across its canvas. But some featured works, including Lompoc Valley—Early Spring, stick to one perspective, lovingly illustrating the scope of the small town from a bird’s-eye view.
“I’m particularly attracted to the disappearing urban landscape—old signage, storefronts, the drive-in theater screen, lamp posts, deserted sidewalks,” Hack said. “I tend to select scenes that have a visual and emotional poignancy for me; a view that tugs at my heartstrings.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood wants Lompoc to reopen that drive-in someday. Contact him at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 4-11, 2019.