e-mail: elaynaalexandra@mac.com
phone: 623-734-5202
Northern, Arizona

Elayna Alexandra is an award-winning artist who creates out of her home studio in Flagstaff Arizona. She believes that art is a powerful medium for communication, self-knowledge, and healing.  Elayna also feels that this expression of creativity should be a part of every day life. After twenty-two plus surgeries for her disability Pseudarthrosis, she knows that finding a voice, which she has found through art, and using it to express oneself and connect with others is part of what makes our lives valuable and important. Flodin creates digital archival prints in a process of combing layers of her own photography, artwork and personal x-rays through Photoshop and Illustrator. She also works in acrylic, watercolor, oils and many other mixed medias that are often worked into her digital prints. Recently Elayna has begun serious work on exploring more and more of the world through the lens of her Canon 50D and is working on several bodies of new work that will either stand alone or become part of her digital compliations. In Flodin’s artwork she exposes the hidden parts of life and draws attention to life’s many layers and complexity bringing softness to hardness and beauty to trauma.

2010 Art First, The Auxiliary of the University Medical Center at Princeton,
Princeton, NJ International group juried exhibit and silent auction.

Twilight Gallery, Featured Artist. West Valley Arts Council,
Glendale, AZ Group exhibit.

2009 Art First, The Auxiliary of the University Medical Center at Princeton, Princeton, NJ
International group juried exhibit and silent auction.

Taste of the Arts, Heritage House Marley Park, Surprise AZ
Art and jazz evening

2008 Art in Civic Spaces, Goodyear City Hall, Goodyear, AZ
Group juried exhibit.

Night Visions III, Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, AZ
Group juried exhibit.

Celebrating Art of the West, West Valley Art Museum, Surprise, AZ
Group juried exhibit.

Peoria Celebration of Artists, Peoria City Hall, Peoria, AZ.
Group juried exhibit.

Embracing our Differences, Sarasota Bayfront, Sarasota, FL
Group show, outside, educational

2007 Driven, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.
Group exhibit, award winning, sponsored by VSA & Volkswagen of America.

Inside Out, Hands on Medicine, Portland, OR
Two-person exhibit, theme: human body and emotions.

Knight/Night, Windermere, Hillsboro, OR
Group exhibit, theme: night/knight

Bones and Butterflies, Walters Cultural Arts Center, Hillsboro, OR
Solo exhibit, including a special installation of an interactive community art drawing wall

2006 Revenge of the Bats, Influence Gallery, Hillsboro OR
Group exhibit, keep kids safe for Halloween project

Life, Marylhurst Student Gallery, Marylhurst, OR
Group exhibit.

One day in the doctor’s office, looking at yet another set of x-ray films of my disabled body, I was struck by the strange beauty of bones—the soft, delicate shading of grays and blacks in contrast to the starkness of the metal materials pierced through the bones. When the doctor stepped out, I snapped some digital photos of my x-rays, and later at home I worked with them in Photoshop.

Suddenly, these pieces of bone came to life. What was hidden beneath layers of skin and muscle became exposed. I began looking at the contrast between my photography of bones and pieces of nature and paintings I had made depicting a variety of subjects. Layering these diverse images together reminded me of the complexity of life—what we hold covered up and hidden now lay in front of me revealed. Comparing bones with ordinary pieces of beauty—a rose, leaf, or a moth’s wings arrayed with detailed designs—I was reminded how in our crazy lives we pass by so quickly the details of the natural world as well as the complexity of our bodies.

The intent of my digital work is to bring attention to hidden layers of life. With my work I ask that viewers continue to look deeper, into both my work and into their own lives. Hoping that as they discover a hidden wing of a butterfly, or first see the grayness of my background for what it is, a bone, they will be reminded that our lives are never what they appear at first glance, layers are just part of life. Seeing these layers, investigating these layers, is part of becoming more aware.

2007 Award of Excellence VSA/Volkswagen of America

ArtFirst! 2009 2nd Place Photography

2010 Art Grant Recipient

Professional Arts Experience

2008-Current        West Valley Art Museum, Surprise, AZ
                                   Youth Art Instructor, Gallery Assistant

2006-2008            Hillsboro Community Arts, Hillsboro, OR
                                  Board Member
                                  Founder,  project developer, & fundraiser for Rise Above homeless youth art program.

 2007                       Oregon Zoo, Portland, OR
                                  illustrations for wild animal education program
                                 assisted with print/web marketing and development                       

2006-2007            Glenn and Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center, Hillsboro, OR 
                                  Art Instructor for youth and adult in a variety of mediums, Facility Supervisor 

2004-2007           Elayna Alexandra by Design, Beaverton OR
                                 Cover design for published poetry book: Quartet four Poetic Voices
                                 Illustrations for published children’s book: Sherman the Frog Meets the Snow Princess
                                 Various web/print design

 2006-2007          Young Rembrandts, Portland OR
                                Instructor of Elementary Drawing Programs, Account recruitment  

2004-2005          Fireside Academy, Beaverton, OR
                                Developed and instructed art program Exploration of Creativity for teens