Alyssa Elkins YAA OSU Scholarship Recipient
Alyssa Elkins is the recipient of the Yaquina Art Association OSU Scholarship. Alyssa will be showing her large-format paintings on the north wall of the YAA gallery in July. There will be an opening reception for her on Friday, July 11 from 5-7 pm giving the community a chance to meet and greet her.
Throughout every phase of life Alyssa Elkins has always been an artist. As a young home-schooled 7th grader entering the public school system, art was her escape. As a High School child faced with trying to navigate the new world she was presented with, art was her constant, and as an 18 year old facing the death of both of her parents, art was her therapy.
Alyssa grew up in the Willamette Valley and attended Oregon State where she took an interest in geography, cultural anthropology, and of course, the Pacific Northwest. She recently spent a semester studying in Prague and took some amazing classes on Central European art and architecture as well as learning about their culture and the cultures of various countries throughout Europe. As a graduating senior, she has been accepted into Marylhurst University where she will obtain her Masters in Art Therapy Counseling with the hopes of working with children who have been through abuse or trauma, eventually moving onto research in the field. The next two years will be dedicated to more learning experiences, both in the classroom and in public spheres, a tradition of lifelong learning she hopes to carry with her throughout her career.
The work she has done to date has been mainly influenced by life experiences. There is a strong color theme and a sense of emotion conveyed by abstraction or the breakdown of a concept into its most simple form. She enjoys working with the color blue because it has a calm sense of suppressed emotion and for her, represents the struggle to find “self” after having responsibility forced at an early age; a long and hard journey that fades in and out of her conscious mind at times.
Alyssa’s work is also based in her belief that art influences and mimics culture in many ways. Through art we can understand what was happening socially, economically and personally to the people of any time and in any place. Her focus is on a the relationship that man has with the earth, both on a large scale, and a more personal level with an interest in the interaction between the geographical lines of the earth and the manmade structures that run our society. The interconnectedness and subtle differences form connections similar to those found in nature. These tie in with her sense of self and her emotional connectedness with the earth. While she is at Marylhurst she hopes to push these relationships between the inner self and the environment to new levels of exploration, while learning how to help others come to understand the emotions and situations they have found themselves in.
“Skeape” by Alyssa Elkins
“Relics 1 2 3” by Alyssa Elkins
