the only thing you should fear is an un-lived life. - Elysia

artist statement

I create work that challenges the audience to think and look upon the art to intrigue an emotion or thought, bringing awareness to their own perspective. Inspiration comes from my environment and experience. My development in art derives from perception, emotion, and growth through understanding the exterior world with my senses. I absorb all that I can, then unfold it into an expression that has moved through me. It’s very important to me to always be aware and to think about my surroundings while experiencing something new. I will always be on a path of developing, re-fining, and exploring my artwork. It’s a journey of expression that never has to end. I’m not afraid to take risks or investigate new materials.I appreciate minimalism and repetition and enjoy creating pieces that provoke thought and also pieces that can simply be admired for their surface or form. It’s important to me to have this balance in my life and in the development of my work. -Elysia

3.25.11

the beauty of life is how we see it and the passion of wonder that keeps us moving on its untamed path.

-Elysia

Frames of Mind

Perhaps all we are, are wild thoughts and then we immediately try to find meaning, relationship and identiy of the thoughts so we feel we are in a snese of control or understanding over our mind, but the question still remains of where the place in which they come from? If our thoughts are all wild, perhaps conscious thinking are the thoughts we have identified and the thoughts that work to form our world of reality, where the unconscious thoughts are those in which we do not understand, but often stream into different frames of mind and our conscious reality as well. How many people can say they understand their dreams and can interpret the dream for you if you dare ask them to? People often talk about how strange their dreams are and laugh about it to give a peace of mind to the unknown and the idea that there is no connection of that dream to their reality. Or is there? Perhaps all our thoughts are wild, rooted from our unconscious mind where there is no control over what it will create. I do believe in the way we think and how our thoughts, any thoughts, are formed is highly influenced on what we see and how we see. How perceptive we are to the ideas we built into our reality. How perceptive we are to other’s ideas and what kind of ideas can spark from the ideas they wish to communicate to us. If thinking can not be separated from imagination, and our dreams are the purest, untamed form of imagination, then our unconscious is our pool of thoughts. The pool is filled with thoughts and it is up to us to become aware to those thoughts. We already have all the thoughts, ideas in our mind, but the challenge is becoming awake to those thoughts and ideas. Then once we are awake, our concisous thinking takes over to form and discover an identity and possible ownership of the thoughts so we can try to understand the reality we live in. but what about the thoughts where no ownership is found? We could possibly take the time to go back layer by layer in our minds, try to find a connection, and maybe one can be found, but maybe one can be not and therefore will remain unnonymous unless claimed by oneself.

I look at wild thoughts with no ownership like an orphan. The face is recognized, it is recognized that it is a child, that it is an orphan. The thinker is aware and recognizes the phenomology of this thought, but it’s placement of birth and ownership is unknown and with this unknown it is sometimes more difficult to understand the wild thought and where the wild thought wants to live in reality of our consciousness. The birth place of the wild thought may remain unknown unless one dares to research the history of the orphan and find the purest connection, it’s birth. One may discover an identity of the wild thought or one may discover it was not their thought at all, but one from another that they were unaware of the moment the idea occurred.

If there was a scale from asleep to awake, how many different mind sets are there in between? Is there a way to note them all or is the distance of frame between asleep and awake a wave of untamed motion, where the phenomology of thoughts can abrupt at any given moment. Also, while the stream of motion, the stream of frames of mind is at play, one must also consider how the body is playing a role in all of this as well. How are the senses reacting? What kinds of emotions are seeping into action? What are we seeing? What is our sensitivity to perception and how is that affecting the way in which we are thinking? Then another matter steps in: memory. What from our past is defining our way of thinking and our way of perceiving? Every marking of our history can not be denied, we live with our past constantly, which can either break down our present thinking or uplift our present thinking to finding wisdom and possibly truth to our frame of thought at the present moment. In what way has our past dictated how we think right now? In what way has our past dictated in how we see right now? In what ways has our past forced us to become aware because of the experiences we have had, and how does that awareness affect the way we think? I feel that with higher sensitivity to awareness, feelings, and curiosity our minds expand and therefore we are more aware of thoughts we already had and feelings we already had and therefore have more thoughts and more ideas to expand upon, either with or without ownership.

I feel that the beauty of poetry is in the eye of the poet, how the poet sees the world, how the poet is aware of the world and aware of feelings and thoughts that become a projection of details communicated through phrases of words that spark the same awareness in the reader and then can continue to light a gasoline trail of thoughts because of the individual perception of what the poet is communicating. In a simple way, one thought can spiral into an infinity of thoughts, with or without ownership, with or without conscious awareness. If the mind or eye is captivated by something, this can spark an untamed motion of thoughts, thoughts that can jump from unconscious to conscious. For example, I may read a passage of poetry about golden dust or melancholy air and I may just digest those words and move on and later on dream about them and at the time I am unaware of their formulation or why I dreamed about them or why I dreamed what I could create with those words in images with my imagination. In a dreamland of my own where anything is possible, I could have seen (sparked idea) people made of gold dust walking around in an abandoned city or I could have been eating soup that was really just a bowl of gold dust or the melancholy air could spark my imaginative dream thinking into feelings about a past boyfriend and a dream situation with him could play out in my mind while I’m asleep, where it’s difficult to breathe because I am so upset about what the situation was with him. Does this make sense? This idea that what we perceive, and what we see, and what we become aware of in the concisous can spark thoughts in our present state of being awake or they can spark in our unconscious, in our dreams, when we are unaware at all. I don’t know if this is a valid way of thinking at all, I’m merely curious about the idea and I am trying to unfold an awareness of this curious thought by thinking it through and talking it out.

Perhaps we have all that we are waiting to know. We have all the thoughts and ideas, every person, we just individually have a different awareness to them and different perception to them. We all have the same ideas because we can understand someone else’s idea and we can agree with someone else’s idea, or disagree. If we didn’t have the same ideas how would we understand one another, how would unity in movement of the world we live in work? Can we have unity in emotion or is it all just logical agreements? It’s all about becoming aware of the ideas, through education, communication, experience or introspection. Awareness is the key to the formulation and identification of thoughts. nuff said for now, Elysia.

my lips were heavy

and no words could detach themselves from my tongue.

the pain was swelling inside me,

pulling the floor closer,

waiting out the sun

until darkness painted across the ground

i couldn't sleep

my heart did not beat right

it was becoming broken glass

inside a silk coffin.

-Elysia

one variable

art school: one variable

Us ceramic majors were reading Letters to a Young Artist, written by Anna Deavere Smith. "The life of an artist is risky: there's a lot to be afraid of. Poverty, no health insurance, no dignity when you can't find work, dealing with people at every level who are thinking of you as a commodity - or worse, people ignoring you, people not believing in you, dismissing your work. The supreme danger is that you could be invisible. But the fact is, you have to be stronger than all of that... You will need extraordinary physical intellectual, emotional, spiritual strength." (135)

These are a lot of things to be afraid of, but for me, the scariest element about being an artist is being in unity with what you create. As an artist you must become ONE with your art, there can not be two elements, there can not be a separation between who you are and what you create. Who and what you are will transcend onto your art, especially if you are passionate about it. First, you must not only clarify who you are, but accept who you are and embrace the spirit inside you. When you are able to live your life disregarding "society standards" will be the day you live free. Embrace fear and make it exciting - manipulate it into adrenaline. When you are one with your art, you experience full exposure, which is something many people try to avoid. Find the strength and courage to expose yourself without letting anyone bring you down or take advantage of your vulnerable position. If you are able to achieve this, there is no doubt that you will bring a presence into the room that no one can deny by finding themselves in a powerful fixation. Don't forget to stay open minded.

Second, you must keep experiencing the unknown. Try something new, travel, learn about other cultures, etc. This is an eye opener. Break out of your comfort zone, challenge yourself, challenge your emotions, make yourself uncomfortable and there will be a heightened realization of what you are experiencing. Learn through pain and you will become a wise owl. Never, never feel sorry for yourself. Never hesitate to help those in need. Never forget how blessed you are. Never take your life for granted. Never take other lives for granted. Observe, listen, and understand to the best of your ability about people and their feelings. Understand your own emotions.

Last, reach out for experience, this is vital. Find time for yourself to relax and meditate, this is essential. One of the most important elements: BALANCE. Balance requires discipline. Balance requires letting go. -Elysia

knowledge is the ability to understand what we already know. - Elysia