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Aya Catherina Elias

Biography:
My name is Aya Catherina Elias, and I’m from Beirut, Lebanon. I find inspiration in many places which have influenced my creative style and process. I create art to release stress and all other emotions that are in my heart. Whenever I dream of a painting, I try to recreate it in real life. Art has saved me from my battle with depression and suicide. I write about this today to raise awareness and tell every person who is reading this, do not be afraid, it gets better, slowly, but surely… I specialize in acrylics and I mainly focus on abstract art. I also enjoy working with oil painting, watercolor, oil pastel, pastel, and pencils. My art style does not fall under one category. If one would like to define it, I think it would fall under “chaotic.” I use this word in a positive context. I am motivated by life and dreams. As well as love, friends, family, psychology, movies, music, anything! I have been creating art for 10 years. My favorite artist is Vincent Van Gogh and I find his work to be as crazy as my mind! I connect with the art community on Instagram (@PaintwithAya), I try to communicate with anyone who seems to appreciate art. I search for galleries online and try to visit exhibitions as much as I can. My work has been shown when I was about 9 years old, at the art school that I used to learn at. Ever since, I’ve just been doing art to fill the walls of my house. My mother is my greatest supporter.
When people see my work, I hope they see my pain and my sorrows. I tend to raise awareness and share positive energy through the bright colors that I use in contrast with the darkness in my art.

Statement:
“With influences as diverse as Vincent van Gogh and Takashi Murakami, new relations are constructed from both orderly and preconscious environments. Ever since I was a child, I have been attracted to the formation of thoughts and ideas in our mind. What started out as a desire soon became corrupted into an inevitability of vainness, leaving only a sense of disillusionment and the birth of a new beginning. One cannot deeply understand the formation of ideas, for it is our imagination that plays the major role in our ikshana. Art is something I cannot explain, but it is a part of my soul. It made me a survivor and it gives me a reason to wake up every day and write down my dreams on canvas.”