With artistic roots as a certified glassblower, and having a bachelor in Childcare and Welfare, Elin Hauklien is known for her creativity and artistic skills. She grew up in Lillehammer, Norway and worked in the local glass workshop before and after she finished her apprenticeship time as a glassblower.
During the last 13 years Elin has devoted most her life to volunteering while living in Namibia and South Africa and travelling in many African countries. For about 10 years of that time, she has been doing production design related tasks related to video production, photography and display design.
Her art style has been shaped and refined through the influence of local and international artists and creatives she has collaborated with during those years till now. Elin loves people, diverse cultures and languages and she has a craving to understand people on a deeper level.
Through a vibrant imagination and intuitive processes, she uses different medias to tell stories through raw lines, patterns and symbolic, animated characters. To Elin, listening and observing our own life and the life of others is essential to having empathy for others, and to build closer connections with others and to increase creativity.
Elin often creates concepts related to observations and expressions of human emotions, the conditions of people’s life and motivations for living. Contemporary artists like, Brazilian artist Ciro Fernandes, Mozambican artist Ezequiel Mabote, South African artist William Kentridge and classic artists like Edvard Munch, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso are among those who motivate and inspire her art.
Symbolic and abstract, black and white or oversaturated combinations, pop art inspired cartoonish animals, motives with humorous undertones, they all describe how Elin expresses her concepts. From childhood Elin has loved patterns and textures and being exposed to the use of patterns in Africa, so she has integrated patterns as part of her signature mark. She likes her art to feel raw, hand drawn and organic. Rough, like life and earthy like the soil, to keep us feel grounded.
Besides working with woodcut prints, Elin expresses herself through mixed medias, through digital art, acrylic paint, water color, spray paint and often times with layers of different textures physically or on a digital canvas.
During the years Elin was working with preventative programs for young people in Norway and Namibia, she used art and creativity as ways to connect with and to motivate young people. Storytelling, role plays, drawing, painting, playing and team activities. They have all been tools she has used to encourage young people to express themselves, create positive goals and deal with difficult emotions.
Elin says: “I feel very thankful to all the amazing people I have met and how they generously have allowed me to have a small share in their life, how they have shared their stories with me, how they have listened to my story and how we together have created and how they have educated me to understand art and creativity.
The decoration of houses, traditional arts and craft and the use of patterns in traditional wear, continues to inspire and influence my art. I would like to share all what others have shared with me, striving to be a Creativity Booster for others. I don’t want to be a person that is able to only empathise with and understand other people, I want to be a connector and to connect with others to inspire creativity and positivity through art expression.
Hi, my Norwegian name is Elin, or Nokuzola, among my Zulu speaking friends, or Helena by my friends from Mozambique. I am a creative motivational artist. Welcome to my organic art universe, I hope you feel inspired and motivated.”
