Elle Nelsen

North Monterey County High School

Junior

My moral compass is my most impactful/significant strength and the driving force behind my art. The incorporation of personal beliefs into art is what connects the artist to the audience. I strive to make my audience not only feel what I am presenting, but also to connect them on a deeper level to that moral compass. My greatest goal is to go to a University which not only values art but will allow me to continue my education of art and psychology. All I am, and all I desire to be, is inspired by the most significant influence in my life, my mom.

To create my artwork I gravitate to mixed media because of its cross-sectional ability to bring different mediums of representation into one idea. The main theme I tend to stick to in my art is the influence of all things around us no matter how significant or insignificant we view them.

The main theme of most of my work is currently the intersection of the significant with the insignificant. The work of UK graffiti artist Banksy has been influential in my current work. The social commentary of his work: questioning authority, capitalism, and political activism, speak to me. The current theme underlying this work is questioning the significance of seemingly innocuous current trends and their implications in the political and economic spheres. Exposing the significance of seemingly innocuous social media on political and economic arenas is the underlying current theme of my art.