Vanessa Elaine’s works capture and utilize organic forms and processes, such as spirals, breakages, and the aleatory operations of chance. Her paintings are almost narrative, yet this derives less from what she depicts than the way her chosen materials congeal in her art.

The mixed-media work Sea Goats & Mermaids designedly shapes various materials so as to suggest the motions of sea life. The purple, brown, and black forms possess a certain dynamism, assisted by the fact that each form is curvilinear. Against a white backdrop, they seem set in relief, floating on a placid surface.