A quick tour around the exhibition of the series, Spread Too Thin, shown in London in October 2022.
Valerie Ellis is an artist, formerly a psychotherapist, with a studio near west London. She uses paper to represent human experience and intrapersonal dynamics.
Valerie gained her arts degree and psychology degree from the prestigious University of Queensland, Australia. After 20 years in private practice, Valerie moved back to the UK, where she'd lived as a child.
With a psychological lens, Valerie’s artwork uniquely reflects themes like childhood, stress and disguise.

'Spread Too Thin' is a series of 18 conceptual works in paper.

On one hand, hyper-productivity, hustle culture and social media bombardment demand we work harder and longer...on the other hand, looming global recession spreads thin our resources so we have less with which to do more. Furthering the pursuit of using paper to represent the human experience, 'Spread Too Thin' is a series of work on/in paper which illustrates the effect of overextending ourselves.

Cellulose, named to reflect its composition of cells, is the industrial name for paper pulp from which paper is made. Thus, paper is a profound metaphor for people because our fundamental structural unit is also the cell. When handled and impressed upon, paper responds in much the same way people do; buckling, weakened, pierced, tattered and wrinkled.

When spread too thin, people become fragile, frayed at the edges, buckling under pressure and vulnerable. This series is a minimalist, symbolic reflection of the experience we all encounter when we take on too much, try too hard to impress others by pushing ourselves beyond healthy limits and overextending ourselves.

Each piece is an example of a different way of spreading cellulose and the various effects created. They are named in the way of the post-minimalist, process art of Richard Serra - for the gesture used to effect the result. Many of the resulting 'papers' carry surface textures like skin which heightens the analogy and some have inks added, highlighting the dynamic movement of the material.



The artist wants you to consider...what happens when you spread yourself too thin?

For more see the website www.VeryValerieEllis.com