About the Artist

Elyse’ Jokinen is a self-taught visual artist working primarily in mixed media analog collage. She is the founder and passionate facilitator of the online platform Wilder Collage. 

Her work has been collected in more than four countries and has been shown in group exhibitions with PxP Contemporary, Arts to Heart Project, BHA Gallery and more. 

Elyse’ is the proud recipient of a gift grant from the Kanyer Art Collection for her work with Wilder Collage and is preparing to release her newest series, POUR.

Artist Statement

I held a mirror up to the last decade of my life and what was reflected back to me was the collage series, POUR. The deconstructed pieces of found material are a path that runs parallel to the fragments of time spent in the many places I’ve lived over the years.

I began this series with a small splatter of paint across the paper representing the spontaneity and freedom of my early journey. Then, I let my pen intuitively run along the page depicting the twists, turns, ups, and downs. Like wandering, some pieces are precisely chosen while others end up in my hand by total happenstance.

Finally, I begin to collect and arrange memories like flowers in a vase. The paste holds these down in a way that I’m unable to and makes each piece whole and beautiful just like the uncommon life I choose to live.