Elsa Sroka continues to explore what is becoming her signature subject: cows. Sroka has been playing up this personification by titling her pieces after human emotions, such as gratitude. Recently, however, she has begun placing the cows in whimsical, surreal settings—a mother and calf floating in a rowboat at sea, or a cow wearing shoes and walking across a field. Although she absorbs influences ranging from childhood storybooks to contemporary design magazines, Sroka notes that these vantage points emerge without conscious thought. “I take [the cows] as my subject, then play around with my imagination as to where I can put them,” she says. In this latest work, Sroka says she’s been layering paint more, letting the texture and brushwork become more pronounced.
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