ARTIST STATEMENT
I work in many different mediums but two I keep coming back to is collage and printmaking. I love the chaotic overlap of memory, intimacy, and identity that different objects can represent. This piece serve as a form of visual journaling, every object, texture, and drawing is placed with meaning and intent. I wanted to use recognizable imagery and items evoke a sense of nostalgia when you gaze upon my pieces. My current work focused a lot on the high school experience of a teen girl, the chaos, the humor, the drama.
I wanted the viewer to be able to feel a story unfolding. A story where every experience is new and full of adventure. I like to focus on objects in my printmaking and collage because I like to draw attention to things we overlook. Certain receipts and drawn pool balls represent days that may have been forgotten but the impact of them lives on in my body as I move forward from teenhood to adulthood. As a queer woman specifically I wanted to incorporate some objects as a subtle nod to experimentation and the mayhem that comes with being a young queer girl in high school. This body of work exists in the space between trash and treasure, private and public, adolescence and adulthood, chaos and cleanliness. It’s a celebration of messy, emotional, overstimulating years we are all happy we grew out of and yet we find ourselves missing that unbridled freedom that comes with growing up.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elan was born and raised in the Bay Area, California. She is currently living in Chicago as she pursues a BFA with a focus in Illustration and Fine Art from the School Of the Art Institute Of Chicago. She have always had a passion for art and has been pursuing it since she was in middle school. In high school, she invested time developing my visual art skills at the Idyllwild Arts Academy and the Oakland School For The Arts. This privilege of going to art high schools allowed her to explore many different art practices such as digital art, illustration, graphic design, printmaking, painting, sculpture and so many more. Her work has been seen in the Rosebud Gallery in San Francisco, Bay Area Creative Foundation where she won the Superior Award, FM Gallery, Oakland California, and many more. Her work often follows her journey as a transgender woman navigating this complex world in the face of political issues she cares deeply about. Her work has been apart of protests and fundraisers to support trans youth and continues to push back and speak up against a world trying to keep her quiet.
© Elan Bareket