VISUAL ARTIST

MAIYA ELAINE

The Artist

Maiya Elaine is a native Floridian who began studying the arts at the age of 9 years old, taking an admiration early on. Fascinated by colors, shapes and lines, studying the details of everyday life helped with basic coordination.

Graduating from the 2014 class of Douglas Anderson, she trained as a theatre technician, studying set design, lighting, sound, costume and prop making, focusing on scenic painting. By junior year, she became the lead painter for that year’s major musical theatre production, Beauty and the Beast, in 2012.

Having participated in shows and exhibitions across the city and in the state, she exhibited her first solo show called “Breach” in October of 2019.

She also acts as culture correspondent on First Coast Living’s monthly segment, “The Artist Corner with Maiya Elaine”, where she discusses arts and culture events happening here in Jacksonville. She is currently working on murals around Jacksonville and a smaller series of work in the studio.

She also collaborates with TedxFSCJ, and has hosted and acted as art curator for their events, most significantly one of their latest presentations titled Not the Enemy, where a diverse panel discusses the idea of hyphenated identity and social stereotypes, as well as the long history of racial tension around the world, while discussing ways of dismantling these stereotypes and creating a more inclusive environment, starting with the communities we live in.

Artist Statement:

These works are an amalgamation of thought, emotions and ideas created by one’s own perception of social, cultural, political and economic issues. In the process of combining subconscious thought and conscience reality, a meticulous process of layering combinations of opposing and complementary color, shadow and light, the illusion of depth is created, and a painting emerges from abstract layers of line, shape, and color.

The artist uses a bold and charismatic color palette to create a soft, ethereal environment, filled with interpretations of our conscious reality and the illusion of subconscious influences and it’s counter-intuitive perception of the world.  Social Sciences such as psychology and philosophy, as well as hints of mythology and religion, shape the focus of a collective thought or feeling rather the individual perspective by engaging the viewers inner workings creating a “shared connection to something more than themselves”.

There are singular moments in where the future and the past resonate with one another.

Celebrating traditions and respecting new insights into how to change for the better can improve not only personal perspectives but collective experiences. That there are some truths in every perspective. It is the outward perspective that all of humanity shares essential interests and the collaborative efforts in order to achieve the bigger picture we are in search of.