Artist Profile: Allison Elia

Making Ideas Tangible

By Natalie De Valle

Starting with 200 pounds of clay and a sketched out idea, Allison Elia, a local North Fulton artist, can create powerful sculptures of the human form that take on a weightless appearance. Just as effortlessly, she uses her ability to paint vibrant and visually dynamic pictures to add life and color to her figures. I am inspired by the human form and their internal experiences, she says. My art captures a snapshot of an emotional moment that is going on inside a person.

Allison has been professionally sculpting since 2010, but has always been artistic. Ive been creating art nonstop since I was about ten years old. Its something Ive always been good at, she proclaims. She grew up in Stow, Ohio, just south of Cleveland and received a MFA in Ceramics at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth in 2013. Since moving to Georgia in 2014, Allison has had a solo exhibit at Art Center West in Roswell, the same place she has her studio. Shes also a part-time ceramics instructor there. With all her artistic involvement, there is no doubt that her passion lies in art, especially in sculpting. My favorite part of being an artist is taking an idea and making it tangible, she says.

When creating a sculpture, Allison starts off sketching out her idea and creating a small model. Then, using a metal armature, she starts carving away at the terracotta clay she uses to make her life-sized figures. The art at that point gets hollowed out and set aside to dry for a week before firing in the kiln. I have to build some of my heavier pieces upside down and then turn them right-side up when they are finished, she explains. It can take up to three months to complete a life-sized sculpture, but it only took her one month to complete Heal, one of her favorite sculptures, from start to finish. Heal shows the emotional experience of finally letting go in the way the apples are floating around the figure, and only a single apple is balanced on the fingertips, she says. She likes to explore the symbolic coexistence between guilt and weight, and hope and buoyancy through her art.

Allison creates a new sculpture once every week or two, although not all of them make it to completion. Each piece is its own goal and achievement. Some of them dont work out like they were supposed to or how I imagined, she explains. She sells some of her smaller pieces of work, but most of the full-sized sculptures take up residency in her home. They are everywhere, including under the bed and in the closet. I have them hidden all over my house, basically anywhere I can stash a ceramic body, she laughs.

Allison looks forward to being featured in more big art shows. This spring, she will have a solo exhibit at the Art Center West in Roswell.

Ashland.edu/cas/calendar/8-21-14/artist-talk-allison-elia