Ellen Chisdes Neuberg
Ellen Chisdes Neuberg has discovered, in these over 50 years as a painter, mark-maker, color enthusiast, and social animal, that she needs to express herself with paint. In her youth, she loved the piano and classical music. It was possibly her way of dealing with many early losses of family members, including that of her mother. She studied and taught piano (played by ear at age 4) and, at a very young age, worked with children and theater at day camps in the summers. She built stage sets at Syracuse University 20 hours a week as a theater student and learned to love the physicality of the arts, as well as the beauty and emotions they encourage. She received a BA in psychology much later at age 52 at Chatham College and worked doing art and music therapy with transplant patients and also geriatric depressed and/or confused patients at UPMC in Pittsburgh.
Beginning in 1995, she owned and operated GalleriE CHIZ in Shadyside for 22 years, representing over 200 visual artists from all over the world. This experience presented her with 22 years as a gallery owner, representing and befriending a cadré of artists from different backgrounds. This helped to enhance her appreciation for international cultures, diversity of people, opinions and lifestyles, for which she is grateful. She is now finally a full time artist, allowing herself the time and opportunity to concentrate on and experiment with her own art, and using her former GalleriE CHIZ mosaic building in Shadyside as her studio. She “lets it all out” on canvas. Painting is a personal and “alone” activity and takes her into another dimension. Her paintings historically have been abstract and reflect much of her background and lifetime experiences. They often manage to tell a story, present a conundrum, or a social commentary. Chisdes Neuberg has shown in many juried exhibitions, in numerous galleries and museums including The Carnegie, The Warhol, The Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts, Butler Institute of American Art, Museum of the Alleghenies, Sweetwater Center for the Arts and others. In her belief that “art heals”, she enjoys young local musicians using her space to rehearse their music and more recently another artist friend, painting on the lower level of her studio. Her studio/gallery is open to others to visit and browse.
She enjoys company and hearing what others have to say, with hopes that she can resume the concerts occasionally presented at Chiz as the pandemic wanes. “My most recent one-person show was at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Robertshaw Gallery, titled “A Puzzlement”, a spoken song performed by Yul Brynner from the musical “The King and I”. It expressed how the world has changed and continues to change. I used transparencies to allow a visual penetration of what might appear behind the scenes; behind the seemingly happy and colorful facades to perhaps reveal what mysteries may be hidden underneath…possibly as an analogy to human lives…exposing deeper truths for the viewers’ interpretations. Illnesses and losses of family and friends are now normal and painful. Seeking out contentment and refusing to be bombarded by other extraneous things that prevent a productive, charitable, kind, and honest intellectual and emotional life is necessary. This is the time to enjoy what one can, and I am, somewhat selfishly, attempting to do this while I am able. My paintings, as I refer to many of them as abstract surrealism, show and feel this journey. They mean something, allowing others to find solace in their lives, so desperately needed in these times.”
“I think that [creating is] a relatively healthy way to express our feelings. Writing, playing music, writing music, playing even, children even. There has to be some way to let it out. And I think that this is a good, safe way for me to let it out.”
—Ellen Chisdes