Eliza Frensley

Eliza Frensley is an interdisciplinary artist from Nashville, TN. She received her BFA in Printmaking with Entrepreneurial Studies from Tyler School of Art & Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia. She is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK).

Frensley has exhibited work throughout Tennessee and has shown nationally in juried exhibitions, including the Full Court Press Juried Print Exhibition of the Americas at the Art Center of Corpus Christi, TX, and the Delta National Small Prints Exhibition at the Bradbury Art Museum, AR.

I have spent a significant amount of time clarifying how I address trauma and memory and how I might verbally and visually expand the use of these words. I approach representing memory visually by researching how the brain processes episodic and affective memory; then, I identify the implications and rationale for trauma. I want my work and how I present my work to challenge my underlying assumptions or paradigms of thought associated with how memory and trauma are received. I explore how material and imagery can be visual translations of codependency, self-isolation, dissociation, and dysphoria by explicitly investigating ways to portray the complex dynamics of a codependent relationship between a mother and daughter and unresolved grief and desire. I created a practice of art-making to formally address and confront codependent relationships and behavior while analyzing contradicting evidence of nostalgia in hopes of discerning what cannot be verbally articulated.

My most recent work emerges from my inability to distinguish between the truth of my family's heritage and family fantasy galvanized by a determination to control others' perceptions. My work goes beyond the questions of what is true or not true and reframes reality based on existing evidence, such as photographs, certificates, newspaper clippings, and storytelling while juxtaposing inconsistencies within my compositions. These documents are employed as translations of evidentiary language to access my consciousness and awareness of my role as a woman navigating a complex and confusing family system. I do not attempt to differentiate real from constructed familial history because much of the past is shrouded in exaggeration and prevarication. In response to this evidence, or lack thereof, and out of pure curiosity and inquisitive nature, I am creating a collection of visual documents that present stories, histories, and perspectives of my heritage, emphasizing the role of the feminine and navigating real and imagined space. I explore the significance of origin, its intersection with standards of feminine beauty and traditional roles of women, and how perceptions and expectations are transmitted and disseminated within families through narrative, identity, and the practice of religion.

I am building off this foundation while narrowing my focus to a form of storytelling. I confront my own bias and perception of expectations through the use of archetypes, iconography, and motifs from art history and religious literature and recognize the importance of materiality in directing my concepts of permanence, impermanence, and the physical weight of expectations. My past informs decisions I make about the present and future, and I often wonder if the decisions are directed by free will or guided by other external forces and to what extent my perceptions inform them.