ELLE is a renowned street artist with a portfolio that graces walls and galleries around the world. Although she studied Food Science and Technology at a university, she knew she didn’t want to practice science her entire life. “I had always loved art, but I was scared of the financial pressure. I decided I had to give it a try and peruse it anyways!” ELLE graduated with an art history degree.
“Following University, I went to a post baccalaureate program for painting. After feeling quite disillusioned and uninterested in the old-school form of teaching, I dropped out and moved to New York,” ELLE recalls. Soon after, she discovered street art and graffiti. “I immediately fell in love with the work on the street and thought it was a wonderful gift to pedestrians in the city. I decided that I had to partake,” she says. So, she taught herself how to spray paint. That was 10 years ago.
ELLE’s first international trip landed her in Berlin, which came by way of invitation from the Urban Nation Museum. “I had been painting murals in NY because I had free spray paint (I got sponsored by a spray paint company because I was doing lots and lots of graffiti in NY at the time). Once people saw my murals on the streets, the invitations to travel and paint started to happen.”
ELLE has a unique artistic style that is figurative/floral/abstract and collage-based. “I create the collages in photoshop using images from Pinterest, magazines, fashion, renaissance art, etc. and create what I like to think of as ‘visual poetry.’ I then paint those mockup pieces with spray paint on buildings.
The ongoing debate still lingers as to whether street art is considered vandalism. As ELLE explains, she and many street artists started out with street art, moved through vandalism, and then on to mural painting. “Many street artists and muralists started with graffiti, but really, there’s a big calligraphy challenge there. Not all art is graffiti in the same way that not all graffiti is vandalism. I think that Banksy has done the hard work of making (even illegal) graffiti a more acceptable art form.”
Reflecting on some of her most memorable pieces, One of ELLE’s top picks is a painting of a skull/woman collage inside of a crypt in the south of France at MAUSA Museum. She adds: “I also painted a large political mural in Kentucky a few days before the Trump rally that said ” **** Trump,” and really enjoyed being able to use my voice publicly!”
ELLE’s work also includes spray painting on canvas, which presents specific challenges. “Spray painting canvases is incredibly difficult because of the scale,” she says. “Murals and walls are much easier because of the size. Spray painting a 5-story mural is easier in that respect. Typically, the minimum canvas I will paint is 6-foot squared, and even still that feels painfully small and takes a long time.”
ELLE says she is inspired by music, nature, and other art and artist such Wangechi Mutu, Kahinde Wiley and others. To see more of her work, visit http://ellestreetart.com/ and follow her on in Instagram: @ellestreetart.
