About Paula Elion — Artist Statement & CV

To whisper. Not shout. To suggest.

Not determine. To ask — without expecting finite answers. To create images which the viewer can relate to from their personal, ever-changing point of view.

My art explores daily interactions and the unspoken rules shaping us. Family relationships, the female image in a patriarchal society, identity, and gender perception — what is hidden in the everyday emerges in my work. Gender transformation has become deeply personal, woven into both my artistic practice and my experience as a mother.

Motherhood, like art, is transformation. I have learned to listen differently, to trust silences, to let questions remain open. My work draws from films, children's stories, costume catalogues, old photos, social media, found objects, and personal stories. A family photo, altered, acquires new meaning — shifting, expanding, resisting definitions.

Materials play a central role in this process. Layering, erasing, distorting — each gesture mirrors the fluidity of identity. My visual vocabulary is also related to this, as it incorporates a process of abstraction and converses with both the figurative and the expressive.

My work does not define — it invites. It holds space for transformation.