The Art of Self Portraits - A Conversation with Eliana Vélez

Lehigh Valley Arts Podcast

This week, Elise is joined by Eliana Vélez, a mixed-media collage artist who focuses heavily on self portraiture in her works.

Born and raised in rural Eastern PA, with a Jewish mother and a Puerto Rican Father Eliana was inspired to create art that could encapsulate her specific experiences with adversity and trauma throughout her life. As a survivor of sexual abuse, and a person with a learning disability, she tries to create self-portraits that can allow people to understand her perspective, whilst also working through her traumas emotionally. Her work is both a representational self-portrait of her face, but also an emotional self-portrait created by the vintage collage materials, and found objects from her own life. These paintings are almost like diary entries and scrapbook pages, making comments about capitalism, and institutionalized prejudice in the United States. In her experience, when you are a minority every facet of your life is inherently political, and she works to convey this message within her work.

You can find Eliana on Instagram at @elianavelez_art.

This episode's opportunity of the week is for Eliana's solo show at The Gallery at Steel Pixel Studios. The exhibition's opening reception will be on September 21st from 6:30-8pm. It will be at 701 N New St. Bethlehem, PA 18018. The exhibition will be on display from September 14th through the beginning of November.