Tracy Ellyn
Meet Tracy
Location: Miami, Florida
Preferred medium: Mixed media
About me: Since beginning my art career at age 21, I've spent 20 years in Manhattan as a fashion designer and studio artist, where international travel and textile design have deeply influenced my technique. I later transitioned into art education by earning a Master of Science, allowing me to mentor the next generation while maintaining my personal studio practice. My art is created in layers, like chapters in a book. One layer might be glass, another layer paint, drawing, printmaking and more. I build up layers until I feel that the story of my image is complete.
About my art:
Tracy Ellyn's neuroart is featured at the Jane and John Justin Institute for Mind Health at Cook Children's. Her art technique has been called "a harmonious symphony between fine art and spiritual sensibilities" using layered elements from 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, and bringing healing, calming and joy to the environments they are displayed. Her art focuses on the four classical elements: Earth, air, fire and water… and a fifth element – spirit.
When did you begin your art career?
I began my art career at age 21, after I received my BFA in Fine Arts and Fashion Design. I moved to Manhattan and began working as a fashion designer for various companies on 7th Avenue. I began traveling to different countries for my work and became influenced by cultures and by textiles and symbols I would create and work with, which I am told can still be heavily seen in my art pieces. I remained a designer and also a studio artist for at least 20 years before moving on to earn an MS in Art Education so I may work with the next generation in the fine arts as I continued my own fine art studio.
What inspires you to create art and did anything specifically inspire the art we have in our collection?
My experiences traveling, creating and learning symbolism from different countries and histories have always inspired me. I also have a few forms of epilepsy, one of which is nocturnal occipital lobe epilepsy which wakes me at night with intense visuals that turn to the left and sparkle. They may only last a short time, but being focal (not affecting memory), I find that in the mornings I remember them by heart and they are just so beautiful to me that I feel I must paint them. This is what inspired my circle pieces that you have in your collection. Circles, in addition, are a child's first complete shape, giving him or her a sense of closure and accomplishment. Circles upon circles allow a child to be creative and see or create even newer forms from their imagination.
What does your art mean to you?
To me, my art is a harmonious symphony between fine art and spiritual sensibilities. I hope to give that to others, along with its thought-provoking, contemplative and healing qualities. Pablo Picasso reminds us that, “The meaning of life is to find your gift, and the purpose of life is to give it away.”
What do you hope people feel, think, or learn from your art?
I do hope my art gives people an idea of what occipital lobe epilepsy looks like. It is important to me to make important use of what I and members of my family were genetically given. Beyond the epilepsy arena, art is clarifying, calming, humanizing, therapeutic, moving, and joyful, for all of us.