Making art is the only thing that quiets the storm in my head. I love to go there and lose myself. Good art I often don't remember creating.
You decide who will appear in Artforum Magazine, take home $25,000, and display their work at The Art of Elysium's Salon!
My favorite work carries a story worth finding. I've built collections where fragrance and painting merge into a single experience. I've painted animal portraits on surfboards shaped by a surf legend, once ridden by pros, now brought back to life, to serve a different purpose — a tribute to creatures on the edge of extinction. Every piece has a hidden message. I don't make art to decorate walls. I make it to make you feel something you weren't expecting.
Where do you find inspiration?Inspiration finds me — in the space before sleep, in daydreams, in a photo taken from an angle nobody else stopped for. I carry my European heritage and childhood into every piece, weaving cultural references into the composition. I photograph everything, but I'm always searching for the perspective others walk past. And scent — fragrance makes me see colors. A smell can become a painting before I even pick up a brush.
What would you do with $25,000?A month in the French countryside with my daughter and husband. A self-directed residency in one of the most beautiful places on earth. I would paint every single day, photograph everything, write and let it all sink in. I'd come back with a full collection born from that place — its beauty, its fragrance, its soul. But honestly — the real dream is the memory my daughter would carry. That her mum brought her to this magical place and painted every single day. Fully alive. That means everything.
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