Artist Statement

My name is Elyse Hawkins I am a Peruvian-Ukrainian American artist from New Jersey. From a young age I learned to knit and crochet, spending most of my time outside of middle and high school in a crochet group that mostly consisted of older women. I also experimented with other forms of art such as watercolor and paint pens outside of school because my parents didn’t allow me to take any art classes in high school since it didn’t fit into my rigorous science and math based curriculum. Today Fiber Arts including knitting, crochet, and various types of embroidery remain my preferred medium, though I do love combining various mediums to create vibrant mixed media pieces. My art is influenced by my life experiences, patterns in nature, as well as different aspects of my culture. To me creating art is like breathing and over the years it's become a sort of coping mechanism to me. My journey as an artist has deeply expanded since I arrived at CU and met other young people who loved fiber arts through the Crochet and Conversation club of which I’ve now become president of. I am currently pursuing a BFA with emphasis in printmaking at CU. I have few experiences in the professional art world, but have participated in an art contest and auction called the Highbridge Paint Out in New Jersey where I won second place. I also run an etsy shop named Elysium Design Co. where I sell various fiber art pieces. I am interested in learning more digital art so I can create amazing logos, edit and make designs look more professional and perhaps even use digital technology to design knitting and crochet patterns. Overall the possibilities with digital art seem endless and I can’t wait to explore and try different methods in digital art.