Elena Zolotnitsky

Joined Artfinder: April 2018

Artworks for sale: 20

United States

About Elena Zolotnitsky

 
 
  • Biography
    INSPIRED FOR LIFE

    When I was 6 or 7 years old growing up in Moscow, some 30 years before  the experience made its way into the consciousness of my journey, I liked to "play secrets". As an only child I had to occupy myself somehow and that game was as good as any because I could easily do it on my own. It involved rappers for chocolates. The ones that you've managed to consume of course! The better chocolates - the more intricate the rappers were. The best were the ones with the picture in the middle (it could even be a tiny replica of some famous Russian masterpiece hanging at Tretyakov Gallery) and the silver lining. After spending hours on folding them, still smelling of chocolate,  just right, completed with the silver design of the lining leaf, you had to hunt for another necessary element of a "secret". That would be a piece of glass. The beer bottled ones, amber in color were the most magical. Then you had to bury the folded rapper with the glass on top in the shallow grave of the playground's dirt. That was a "secret". The magic happened when the young "artist", on all fours and with her nose close to the ground, started to push the dirt away with her single finger in a slow little circular motion, clearing the tiny window of colored glass.... What a transformation! In the first shock of discovery it takes you a while to comprehend what you were actually seeing.....Then it sinks in: a mystery of familiar....And the feeling! Of wonder, of revelation. I think that all my life I am chasing that feeling - the mystery to be discovered. That instantaneous shift of reality, the recognition of magic.

  • Links
  • Awards

    2014

    3rd Place Winner

    Portrait Society Of America 3rd Place Winner Members Only Competition
    Still Life Category

    Show more awards Hide

    2013

    Full Fellowship

    Residency Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

    2008

    Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award

    Visual Aid San Francisco, California

    2007

    Best In The Show + Cah Prize

    Loyola National Works on Paper, Chicago, IL

    2007

    Award of Excellence + Cash Prize

    Northern National Art Competition, NICOLET College, Rhinelander, WI

    2005

    Best In The Show + Purchase Award

    "DIMENSIONS 2005" 40th National Exhibition, Winston Salem, NC

    2005

    Full Fellowship

    Residency Fellowship at Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM

    2005

    Award of Excellence

    48th COMMUNICATION ARTS Annual Illustration Competition, CA

    2004

    Award of Excellence

    SDAI 46th International Exhibition, San Diego, CA

    2003

    Full Fellowship

    Residency Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

    1997

    Residency Grant

    Paul Beckett Foundation (Denmark/Spain), Almeria, Spain

    1993

    Gold Medal

    Mid-Atlantic Watercolor Exhibition, Baltimore, MD

    1992

    Merit Award

    Society Of Illustrators 36th Annual Illustration Competition, New York, NY

    1991

    Merit Award

    Society Of Publication Design 27th Annual Illustration Competition, New York, NY
  • Upcoming Events

    There are no upcoming events

Links


Awards

2014

3rd Place Winner

Portrait Society Of America 3rd Place Winner Members Only Competition
Still Life Category

Show more awards Hide

2013

Full Fellowship

Residency Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

2008

Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award

Visual Aid San Francisco, California

2007

Best In The Show + Cah Prize

Loyola National Works on Paper, Chicago, IL

2007

Award of Excellence + Cash Prize

Northern National Art Competition, NICOLET College, Rhinelander, WI

2005

Best In The Show + Purchase Award

"DIMENSIONS 2005" 40th National Exhibition, Winston Salem, NC

2005

Full Fellowship

Residency Fellowship at Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, NM

2005

Award of Excellence

48th COMMUNICATION ARTS Annual Illustration Competition, CA

2004

Award of Excellence

SDAI 46th International Exhibition, San Diego, CA

2003

Full Fellowship

Residency Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

1997

Residency Grant

Paul Beckett Foundation (Denmark/Spain), Almeria, Spain

1993

Gold Medal

Mid-Atlantic Watercolor Exhibition, Baltimore, MD

1992

Merit Award

Society Of Illustrators 36th Annual Illustration Competition, New York, NY

1991

Merit Award

Society Of Publication Design 27th Annual Illustration Competition, New York, NY

There are no upcoming events


Featured in

 

Biography

INSPIRED FOR LIFE

When I was 6 or 7 years old growing up in Moscow, some 30 years before  the experience made its way into the consciousness of my journey, I liked to "play secrets". As an only child I had to occupy myself somehow and that game was as good as any because I could easily do it on my own. It involved rappers for chocolates. The ones that you've managed to consume of course! The better chocolates - the more intricate the rappers were. The best were the ones with the picture in the middle (it could even be a tiny replica of some famous Russian masterpiece hanging at Tretyakov Gallery) and the silver lining. After spending hours on folding them, still smelling of chocolate,  just right, completed with the silver design of the lining leaf, you had to hunt for another necessary element of a "secret". That would be a piece of glass. The beer bottled ones, amber in color were the most magical. Then you had to bury the folded rapper with the glass on top in the shallow grave of the playground's dirt. That was a "secret". The magic happened when the young "artist", on all fours and with her nose close to the ground, started to push the dirt away with her single finger in a slow little circular motion, clearing the tiny window of colored glass.... What a transformation! In the first shock of discovery it takes you a while to comprehend what you were actually seeing.....Then it sinks in: a mystery of familiar....And the feeling! Of wonder, of revelation. I think that all my life I am chasing that feeling - the mystery to be discovered. That instantaneous shift of reality, the recognition of magic.