Caroline Ellison Had Her Mind ‘Hijacked’

My main concern with creating the piece was that I wanted to make sure it’s inspired by Caroline’s story but that it stays a piece of art in its own right, that it goes beyond being an editorial illustration. So it is loosely inspired by what I read about her, but when I sat down to write down and sketch ideas I was really going more into this intuitive mode, which I always do when creating art, as opposed to the more problem-solving approach when doing character design. Creating a piece like this involves a lot of trial and error, and I over-paint most of the elements numerous times until they are in a perfect relation and speak to me. I’m very fascinated by how placing familiar objects and figures in new constellations creates new layers of context and meaning. From a formal perspective, I love to work in this exciting realm between abstraction and figuration, and I often juxtapose these seemingly contradictory elements. I also like the idea that the place that I’m depicting and shaping in my work, a kind of “digital limbo” actually exists in an alternate reality, and that I’m merely excavating these fragments of memory like an archeologist.