Most of my works are centered around nature and all of my pieces are set completely or partially outdoors, because they’re reminders of that connection. I think we’ve lost a lot of that over the decades,” says Elisabeth Ladwig, a New Paltz-based photographer and collage artist who creates stories from the mundane objects around her. In Starpolish, “the actual five-pointed stars are origami stars that I folded and hung from the ceiling by fishing line. Then I swayed them and I just took picture, picture, picture,” she says.

The idea for the composition came to Ladwig from Shel Silversteins “Somebody Has To.” The poem offers a plea for an impossible goal.

Somebody has to polish the stars,

They’re looking a little bit dull.

Somebody has to go polish the stars,

For the eagles and starlings and gulls

Have all been complaining they’re 

Tarnished and worn.

To create her magical realist images, Ladwig works from photographs she’s taken of the objects and animals around her. She then digitally blends the photo composites in Photoshop for a contiguous scene. For instance: after seeing her late father-in-law’s fire escape ladder, she knew she had to incorporate it into her vision for Starpolish. 

In almost all of Ladwig’s images, you can spot woodland animals, birds in flights, and flowers or fungi. In her image Dryad of Kinship, the natural elements appear in the clothing. “I was walking through the woods with my husband on a hike, and I happened to walk by this tree and it was covered in turkey tail fungus on the trunk and I just saw a dress,” she says.

Her work has a mystical, fantasy look to it. The dream-like images all portray women in a scene of divine nature. Contemporary artists like Catrin Welz-Stein and Brooke Shaden have inspired Ladwig’s feminine-centered fairytales. 

The idea of refreshing friendships and forming deeper connections in life drove Ladwig to create Starpolish. She hosted “starpolish parties.” “It was an evening full of exercises for meditation and introspection and magic,” Ladwig says.

With Starpolish, as with all of her images, interpretation is up to the viewer. Ladwig poses for all her work, yet you can never make out facial features or any sort of identity to the subject. “I want the viewer to be able to decide for themselves. The viewer is just as much a writer of those stories as I am,” she says. 

Ladwig’s work will be exhibited as part of the Mohonk Mountain House Art Fair from December 10 through 12, open to overnight guests and day guests with a reservation that allows for house access.

Portfolio: Elisabethonearth.com