In the 1980's, Elucious was born in a quiet suburb of Youngstown, Ohio when it was still known as the 'murder capital of the world.' Grisly news and her grandparent's holocaust stories frequently interrupted childhood with their impossible, yet grisly realities. Rusting factories and boarded-up buildings silently attested to the good ole' days - now gone - but in the absence of heavy industry, the environment began to reassert itself in wonderous ways. I frequented the public library where I could check out 20 books at a time and read them on the front porch swing. How did any of it make sense? The horrors of the past and present contrasted with the beauty of the
 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
natural world, the worlds I founds in books, and the pleasure of my own storyworlds? Which was more real? I found refuge - no more than that - a forever home and my own point of view - via the kind of freedom we used to give children
- before we were afraid -
when children used to venture into the nearby woods with only their books, wagons, neighborhood peers, and their imaginations for hours on end. No one knew what worlds we inhabited. Back then, the boogeyman was a story we children told.
Elucious is the distillation of all that is elusively delicious about this world. Her colorful popsurreal artworks challenge the common misconception that black and white reality - the mythic zero world - is the only reality, it is unchangeable, and We all inhabit it.
Look around. What aren't you seeing?
Art is sensemaking. Sensemaking in a world that often doesn't make sense. The world around us is more wonderfully rich and vibrantly alive than the worlds we daily inhabit. Through her art, Elucious creates divergent narratives which beckon and invite us all into the dark forest to walk unforaged paths and recover unsung stories. Her art invites us to make new, unusual acquaintances and discover inspirational wild truths as we reimagine our relationships with the environment, nonhumans, and each other, creating a more equitable future for all.
"I paint things as I think them,
not as I see them." -Pablo Picasso
