ABOUT EILEEN
Eileen Power’s path to becoming an artist was a circuitous one. She was born and raised in New York City to immigrant parents. Though art was not a part of her education, she always believed she was an artist. It simply wasn’t possible to be one full time before having an alternate career.
After an interesting career in marketing, Eileen was finally able to leave the business environment to pursue art. In 2016, Eileen moved from New York City to Woodstock, NY to study at the Woodstock School of Art.
In her home studio, she has been creating art made from everyday objects, animating them in unusual ways. She enjoys upcycling things that others might discard into art.
Her sculptures have been exhibited at The Phoenicia Festival of the Arts, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, the Kingston Design Showhouse and the “Shelter” exhibition curated by Melinda Stickney-Gibson for the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. Eileen received the Robert Angeloch Printmaking Award from the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum in 2021 and the Nicholas Buhalis Award for Weaving the Woven, from the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum in 2024.
The Ladder and the Dress
Stephen Derrickson (1952-2023)
With a breeze of delight, a new beginning.
With the ease of a pencil across paper and its trust in the moment,
She brings the joy her mother invoked as she aged into her wisdom.
Her command touched something unspoken, something ancient,
Something eternal, enduring.
The mists of Inverness, the winds of Stromness, the old world of Dungarvan,
These linger about the pictures, the objects, the fruit of the long-awaited adventure,
Their playful, contemporary alure belying their Celtic-Viking spirits
In a dance of impetuous celebration.
Yes, celebration! The ladder, the stairway to heaven, the classic signifier
Of elevated liberation. The dress, a surrogate of the feminine,
At once divine and quotidian, both Saint and girl-next-door.
Like her they manifest at the gate she walks through,
At the pencil on paper, the paint on canvas, the torn and the tender,
They manifest
When she trusts the moment.
June 17th, 2022