Elizly’s Art

Elizly Steyn, an artist in her own right and also one of the members of ELKOWERU !

Currently her work is on display as part of a music and art show, TABULA RASA, performed by Singer/Songwriter Frieda van den Heever and Elizly Steyn.

Paint and Poetry, Canvas and Sound

Art from the Heart and Songs from the Ground

A Blank Slate on a Coloured Stage

Painting Stories of Being in teh Human Rasa

Tabula Rasa is playing at

Media 24 Theater at the Welgemeend house, Jan van Riebeeck High School 129 Kloof Street Cape Town CBD on the 24tth and 26th of June 2009 (19:00)

Rust-En-Vrede Gallery, Oxford Road, Durbanville on the 9th of July 2009 (19:00)

ART-DICTION

OIL ON CANVAS [770 x 370 mm] art-diction

The expression of art is the unbreakable addiction of my heart

VOSHAARROOI

OIL ON CANVAS [500 x 400 mm]

There is always hope. Depression blinds us to that fact. If we can somehow hold on to our hope, just maybe we can find a way to get through.

DAYLIGHT

OIL ON CANVAS [900 x 600 mm] narrow-daylight

Daylight and Voshaarrooi are two self-protraits of the artist’s own struggle with the silence and secrecy of depression. It is a silent killer often unspoken of due to little education on this subject or the fear of disgrace. The fear that society will look at you differently creates masks that are acceptable to the world. Your shell is calm but below the flesh it feels like a stormy ocean, bottled in with nowhere to expand to and nothing to break the intoxicating energy against.

UNRAVELLING

OIL ON CANVAS [1000 x 500 mm] unravelling

A picture speaks a thousand words, those words that i cannot yet utter lies between canvas and brush. Creating meditates this artist’s chaos into lush. This is my he-art-song.

CONTROLLED ABANDON

OIL ON CANVAS [1200 x 900 mm] controlled-abandon1

Controlled Abandon is the artist’s comparison of the left-brained man and the whole-hearted woman. The background is decorated with images of desires. Desires of an arbitrary man and woman. Desires and dreams of what they want for their own lives and who and what they want their partners to be. Desires are masked into exciting dreams and visions when the love butterflies are strong. Those desires turn into expectations very soon after they “become one”. The artist is making a generalized statement in the hope to ask the question … what is the essence of your desire?

WOMAN HOOD: A JOURNEY OF RESTORATION

OIL ON CANVAS [500 x 500 / 750 x 500 / 500 x 500 mm]

womanhood_hurt-at-heart2 womanhood_whole-at-heart2 womanhood_child-at-heart3

HURT@HEART WHOLE@HEART CHILD@HEART

Complete healing honesty requires you to listen in silence and in tears, embracing the hurting child, allowing her a chance to voice her fears and tears in your lap until they vanish into thin air … and you are left with a SAVIOUR child in your arms. A child to protect, care for and lift up on your shoulder; a child you can carry through the water, across the river and into your heart.

TRAVEL SAFELY: SAINT CHRISTOPHER

OIL ON CANVAS [700 x 550 mm]

travel-safely_saint-christopher2

Through begging me to see her, listen to her and embrace her the child within introduced me to someone I have only dreamed of meeting … Me. Beyond these paintings lies my purposeful desires like the stretching sunset over the open ocean – to “walk on water”, to be and to be carried on the shoulders of “Saint Christopher” … God lifts me up to more than I can be.

UNIVERSAL GEISHA

ACRYLIC ON HARDBOARD – FRAMED [880 x 550 mm] geishaism

Universal Geisha is the artist’s representation of the devestating effect society’s unquenchable eagerness to transform the world to similarity has on humanity. Like a geisha we are manipulated to have an instiable longing to look and be picture perfect. We embark on these 10-steps-to … missions to conform to wociety’s view of what we should be; whilst inside our true character is dying off and turning into stone. Wherever our shadow has touched, darkness remains because we miss the authenticity that gives colour in pallets of spectra to our world.

SEASONS OF BEING

OIL ON CANVAS [25 CANVASES OF 300x 300 mm] seasons-of-being

Seasons of Being is a collage / mosaic of 25 paintings representing a rainbow of seasons in the cycle of humanity. Spring cannot start before the end of winter. Some seasons are harsh and disturbing to look at, some make you smile and some just give you a warm feeling. These seasons from bottom left to top right: Green spring, yellow summer, orange autumn and red winter. Throughout life, irrespective of age, you find yourself moving through the cycle of seasons as seasons will never stop changing.

seasons-1 seasons-5 seasons-10 seasons-8 seasons-13 seasons-11 seasons-20 seasons-24 seasons-25

KALAYAAN (SETTING THE CAPTIVATED FREE)

OIL ON CANVAS [1000 x 750 mm] kalayaan

Kalayaan is a Philipino word used when the slavery was ended and these captivated souls were given freedom from being owned. In the dead gray blue room the artist’s personal captivity is set free to fly. The artist’s freedom diminished fear to a niniature playground where all that was dead are cut loose and given life … the freedom for a heart to beat with passion. This freedom was given to the artist through a promise in Isaiah 54:4: “Do not be afraid you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace you will not be humiliated. you will forget the shame of your youth. For your Maker is your husband – The Lord Almighty is his Name – The Holy One of Israel is your redeemer”.

HARBOUR POSITIVE THOUGHTS

OIL ON CANVAS [1000 x 750 mm] harbour-possitive-thoughts1

In freedom lies the gift of choice! Harbour Positive Thoughts transform the human thought into a harbour. The great statues represent the ability to choose, the ability to control our thoughts and the ability to decide which will be allowed to lay anchor in her bay.

OUT OF PLACE / IN MY SKIN

OIL ON CANVAS [900 x 600 mm] out-of-place_in-my-skin