A Window To Hackney: Meet Eloisa
We are happy to introduce Eloisa, whose artwork features on Kip Wall.
So who are you?
I’m Eloisa, an artist from London who absolutely loves colour. I like to make people happy through my work, my sunny personality and my silliness! I’ve always loved making and creating and have been working in the creative industry for many years as a painter on tv and films, but have now found my true passion as a mural painter. It allows me to make work on a large scale to bring art and happiness to a wider audience. Discovering collage opened up this whole new side to my work as an artist. I was finally able to express myself without worrying about the outcome and it allowed me to loosen up and do work that I love. It’s a way to try out new ideas and inform my murals.
Why do you create?
I create because it’s the thing that makes me happiest. If I don’t create anything it feels like part of me is missing and I haven’t fulfilled my day properly until I’ve sat down and collaged or drawn anything.
What kind of artist would you describe yourself as/what modality do you work with?
My aim in life is to fill the world with happiness and colour. I do that through murals, collages, clothing and teaching. I love making people happy through my work because it is an expression of myself. Life is for having fun and not to be taken too seriously and I want everyone to be part of it.
The theme for the Kip Wall is ‘connection’, what does connection mean to you?
Connection is everything around us. Our friends, our family, the people we meet throughout our lives. It’s a bond, something that we have in common. Coming from a large South American family I have constantly been connected to my roots, even though I live in a different continent! It’s the things that make us special and make us, us.
Breakfast of choice and why?
Breakfast is a meal that I just find so tedious. There’s never enough time to make something that would be amazing to eat, and the normal options are so boring and never filling enough, like cereal or toast… within half an hour I’m more hungry then when I started! So I’ve found that making a smoothie with lots of fruit, oats and other bits and bobs keeps me going until lunchtime and I actually enjoy drinking it. It’s easy to make and can take it with me wherever I go.
Tell us about the piece you created for Kip Wall.
Looking at the theme of connection, I went back to my favourite medium, collage. With collage I can work instinctively and it feels like there is less pressure on myself to make something spectacular. I just do what feels right and see where it takes me. With this piece I made 4 different collages but I used the same shapes in all of them and played around with the composition. They are connected by the same things, but are unique in their own way. They all use colour, shape and pattern to bring them together and make them striking in their unique way.
Take us back to the first time you ‘created’ something, how did it feel/what was it?
It’s so hard to remember the first thing I ever created. My Mum kept all kinds of scribbles and paintings from when I was a child, but the first thing I actually remember and still have a vivid memory of, is when I was about 4/5 going into reception at school. We were new to the classroom and had to do a picture of ourselves to hang up in the classroom with our name hanging off it to welcome everyone into the room. I distinctly remember drawing my face and my big curly hair, then drawing my mouth and colouring it in with a pencil and then instantly thought… why I am I doing this instead of using paint?! Then I started painting my curls but realised that my hair isn’t blue… it’s brown! I guess I felt quite silly for creating something that wasn’t accurate, but I look at it now and I love it!