[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Chinese Chippendale: Powell calls this "an unstable object." The purple cubes can shift; they do not always align with the gold patterns in a way that makes sense.
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Confusion (30"×30"): This piece is hugely complex but also highly formal and easy to enjoy. Powell says she couldn't do it again.
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Challedon Drive (60"x72"): This seems to be Broadway in Manhattan. But Powell says it's an ordinary suburban street. She just happened to like the name. "You have to call them something," she explains. "I don't like 'untitled.'"
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Pink Packages (36"x 32"): Powell says that the red cubes can shift in and out. Sometimes the white and blue ribbons do not align in a logical way.
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Spinner (30"): This piece shows the almost incredible precision of Powell's work.
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Matoaka Avenue (48"x60"): This piece--with its three-dimensional objects interacting in three-dimensional space-- was partially inspired by the work of Al Held. The title is a street where a friend lived.
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Green and Blue Triangles (36"×31"): Powell says she can't do Escher's work; but this seems very much like an Escher in that you want to believe it could exist but it probably couldn't.
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Triangulated Cubes (36"x32"): A handsome, colorful, formal piece. You can stare at it a long time and still not be sure what it is.
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Shifting Cubes (36"×31"): The title says it all. But once you see the cubes one way, it's hard to see them the other way. Powell says some people can see it and some can't.
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Main Street (48"x 60"): Powell says, "I wanted to try a lot of circles in graduating sizes. It just sort of grew."
[photo Jeffrey Diener]
Confused Triangles (24"x 21"): Powell admits she finds this very, very complicated and says she probably couldn't do it again.
Education Policies — Eleanor Powell is remarkable in many ways. For one thing she had 11 children and didn’t turn to art full-time until the youngest were in high school. Furthermore, she creates intricate, hard-edged geometrical paintings that few... Read full article
