Explore the Interdisciplinary Art of Eli Tatosian
Hello, and thank you for viewing my portfolio! My name is Eli Tatosian and I was meant to be a rich person's live-in artist during the Italian Renaissance. In this life, I am from Algonquin, Illinois and spent my upbringing teaching myself how to draw and paint. I received a Bachelor's Degree in Studio Art from North Central College in 2022, and now I strive to capture the overlaps of reality and nonreality, fear and fascination, and humanity in its complexities in my art.
A More Detailed Overview
I have been making art since middle school, when a dear friend of mine began doodling manga and I joined in. From that moment, art has been central to my life. I drew nonstop- during class, at events, late at night when I definitely should have been sleeping. I taught myself with the help of online tutorials and manuals from Half-Priced Books. The result was a growing love for graphite portraiture that honed in on realism as I moved through high school. During this time I also became acquainted with colored pencil, charcoal, acrylic paint, watercolor, and inks.
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During college I took courses in graphic design, figure drawing, sculpture, exhibition, art history, and installation, alongside general studies about revolutions, the sociology of pandemics, the political history of the western United States, biology, philosophy, and more. My educational background in medicine and chemistry from Project Lead The Way's biomedical science program informed my art, creating a solid foundation of anatomical accuracy and representational depictions of living forms. Alongside this, I fostered a deep interest and appreciation for the surreal. I spent a great deal of time writing my dreams down, interpreting them, and recreating the images and places I saw. The result is a body of work that takes non-existence and brings it into existence; I have sculpted tangible objects that have only been held in dreams, and created portraits of people who exist only within my subconscious.
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After college my artistic practice expanded even further. I picked up digital art with a focus on character design and creation in sci-fi and fantasy settings, a la tabletop roleplay games. I also fell in love with ceramics, and now I am surrounded by an abundance of mugs at all times.
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The result of all these intersecting techniques, approaches, and fascinations is something truly remarkable. I pull nonreality into waking reality; I translate words into images, with every line and color choice reflecting something meaningful. I think in terms of function and form, aesthetic beauty, discomfort, dimensions, and the larger frames of sociology and politics that my work exists within. My present career goals are everything and anything; all I want is to create.
Contact
I would love to create things for you. If you are interested in a set of mugs, a custom painting, or a spread of character design concepts, shoot me an email. I am available for freelance and contract work.
twitter.com/etatosianart
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