Art is often rooted in storytelling. Mixed media artist Elissa Brown frequently recalls the trope of being a child at their grandmother’s feet and being enthralled by the spinning of folk stories and fairy tales. It was these adventures in imagination with her own grandmother that sparked Elissa’s interest in narrative and eventually her own pursuit of expressive storytelling. Elissa finished her formal education with an MFA in Mixed Media at Syracuse University, where she nurtured her first love of illustration and planted seeds for what would become her mixed media collection, The Freckled Army.
Elissa’s creations are a labor-intensive process. Her work is layered birch that has been drawn, cut, and painted with the line work being pyrographic, meaning the lines are burned into the wood. The burned drawings lend to the appeal of the work’s graphic nature, while giving the wood itself a vintage touch with the aged patina of the charred edges. The drawing and cutting out of characters and objects, followed by their stacking, and layering into new environments, creates depth and adds to the fantastic element of surprise found in the details of the artwork.
Elissa currently travels the country gaining recognition and collectors from all four corners. You can see more of her works on her website TheFreckledArmy.com
