Memory og childhood (2023) Painting by Ellada Ismayil

I have grown up in Azerbaijan, a country with bright colours and rich yet dominatingculture. At the same time, I come from a large family, where there isn't much spacefor an individual and social bonds are overwhelming. For me, however, since youngage, my surroundings have always been uninteresting, I was seeking for lonelinessand isolation trying to create emptiness that would allow me to construct my ownworld, my own visual narrative, my own aesthetic.I started painting since I was a little girl and always found an asylum in the imaginaryworlds that I was crafting: unlike real life, everything on the sheet was as I want to. Ihave always remembered myself as an artist as my creations served not only asvisual expression, but an alternative reality that I could always escape to, my habitat.Despite being a professionally trained artist, I consciously remain naive in my artisticlanguage. It is crucial for me to keep a trace with my own inner child and how I havealways been perceiving and re-imagining reality.When I am thinking of a new plot for my painting, it always starts with a memory ofsomething I have seen in reality, but that didn't quite "fit" with how I would like it tobe. I interweave myths, personal stories and childhood memories. I am constantly insearch of details, color, images, and composition for my paintings.Since early age I have surrounded myself with various visual stimuli: I like to look atAmerican photographers of the 70-80s, I like to browse through old art books from asecond-hand book dealer, I like art nouveau, impressionism, realism, modernsculpture and ceramics, in other words, everything associated with art. I absorbeverything I see, and yet immediately those impressions turn into a complexpatchwork of personal narratives in my head and can only find an escape on thecanvas.Some series, like Still Life with Flowers are more realistic in their nature, and yetcompletely whimsical, I see these paintings as portals that can take a viewer into myimaginary world where flowers are evergreen and fruits are animated. In my seriesMythology I work with the mysterious image of a woman, yet an intangible mysticalcreature, and the legends about love and temptation, that I see a personalreflection in. Series Being Human is about the reflection on my own intention to bealone and share my strange sensations and imaginative realities, and cats, faithfulcompanions of loneliness, mystical and mysterious animals, act as portals to thesewondrous worlds.It is crucial for me that my paintings bring positive energy and can exist within ahuman context. I like to inhibit homes and spaces, fill them with the glimpses of myown reality, and invite people to take a journey through my artworks.

• Nationality: AZERBAIJAN
• Date of birth : 1979
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary Azerbaijani Artists