Artist Biography
Elizabeth Dourian received her bachelor degree in fine art with a concentration in photography at Endicott College. Dourian has been studying photography for a collective six years and has been in numerous shows since the start of her career. Her first gallery show was at 51 Gallery in 2015. Since then her work has been on show at the Carol Grillo Gallery in Beverly and the Panopticon Gallery in Boston.
Dourian creates bodies of work in the realms of documentary, fine art, cinematography, and alternative process. Dourian spends most of her creative energy filming church services with Netcast church for their weekly live streams.
Dourian works on multimedia projects as a means to share her personal testimony and to represent a microcosm of greater narratives and themes of her time such as: loss, innocence, and religion. Dourian’s storytelling techniques are a combination of writing, audio, photography, and video. While her fine art and observational photography are studies and fact gathering about her surroundings that serve as inspiration for many of her multimedia projects.
Thesis Abstract
Visual representation of the Christian Church in America has grown over the years and those who have navigated such a challenge have pushed the boundaries of all mediums used to represent it. Specifically, photography, video, and writing have been pushed to their limits and their merits have been enjoyed while their many limitations were exposed. Aside from dignified efforts to represent religious groups in America by restoring stolen power and efforts made to share authentically with the viewer, artists fell short of capturing the full glory of God and the grandeur of these worshipful spaces. Despite an apparently hopeless conclusion, many would argue that it was an artist’s duty to push the boundaries of their mediums as far as they were capable so those who follow could pick up where they left off. Each generation who approaches visual representation of a religious group can reach another demographic and another people group with the gospel; therefore, with every new wave of artists people are experiencing God with fresh eyes.
Sunday Coffee picks up where many such as Gordon Parks, Jason Miccolo Johnson, and Montell Fish left off in the photography, film, and writing industries. Sunday Coffee ushers the viewer into an interactive experience with one man’s testimony of coming to faith. The multimedia installation calls on the intimacy, liturgy, and storytelling that immerse the viewer in the life of Ron Yancey so that they too may experience his testimony of coming to know the Creator God.