Bio Elizabeth Traina is a working artist, award winning muralist, holistic coach and energy healer. She has lived and contributed to programs in the San Francisco Bay Area, New Orleans and Brooklyn. Early in Elizabeth's career she rooted in a civic-engaged public practice, utilizing art as a vehicle to support movements for social change. As an art-educator and community leader, Elizabeth's facilitation is grounded in the belief that all people are inherently creative - to be an artist is to discover, cultivate and share your unique gifts with yourself and others. This core-value is a cornerstone of her work; communicated throughout her community oriented public art projects, art workshops and trainings to hundreds of participants nation-wide. In addition to her formal art training in New York, Vermont and Italy, over the past fifteen years, Elizabeth has worked closely with master healers, attended various workshop and trainings in the healing arts. This commitment to education and self-betterment has informed and seasoned her natural talents and integrated into her community based endeavors, current private healing practice and personal art making. In 2011 Elizabeth returned home to NYC and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY where she holds a private practice, engaging clients and groups as an integrated life-coach and energy healer. In addition, Elizabeth maintains an active studio practice where she explores themes relative personal and collective spiritual awaking. She creates paintings and installation artwork as an instrument for discovery and renewal.
Statement "My work considers the psychological effects art has on the perception of self and the social fabric of communities. The intersection of metaphysics, modernism, aesthetics and the role of art in the alchemy of consciousness are the guiding considerations in my work. My artistic process enables work that is couched in consideration of a branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things; including such concepts as being, knowing, substance, essence, cause, identity, time and space. I create complex surreal narratives rich with color, movement and personal iconography. A major theme in my work is the use of the sphere and other geometric forms as symbols to associate pursuits of knowing one's self in relation to the universe. The works are illustrations and guides and exists as communication portals beyond the third dimension of perception. I materialize what is understood yet unseen. Devices of contrast engage the viewer to explore juxtaposition of the real and imagined, the organic and structured, the animal and the human, the totality and the microscopic. The more personally intimate my content more it relevant it is to a collective impulse for enlightenment. My work as an artist also includes a background rooted in a social practice. Through teaching, directing murals and public projects, I guide participants in a process where participants foster as sense of creative empowerment. My public projects engage community members to transform underutilized spaces with art that serve as a mirror, reflecting a resourcing image of vibrancy, unity, and possibility."
