Phedra

jorge-elia.com ...At this home/studio, Jorge let loose all of the secrets learned in his studies of Set Design at the University of Salvador. Upon barely entering the home, vivid colors jump out of the murals and a tiny window allows one to see and hear another waterfall in the inside patio. Just as water and light are the centerpieces of the exterior space, the interior shines from the warmth of the books and paintings. The set designer yields to the painter. Some previous pieces as well as some more recent ones are exhibited on the walls of the house, provoking an enigmatic charm. They are there to be observed that the viewer might contemplate the essence that gave it life. The pieces possess a composite structure characterized by a discourse of opposites: the full and the empty, the atmospheric and the two-dimensional, the succession of hard and soft borders, some warm and others cold, proportion and feeling, the creation of ideas and words on the piece. This is achieved because the works of Jorge Elia are born from an indirect thinking with respect to painting, conceived from digital design. Sketching by computer permits him to sustain a mental process that is guided by the proportions of the golden ratio; in this way all of the preparation before the act of painting is essentially rational, but once immersed in the painting, becomes intuitive. The technique of the work is left exposed: between the digital beginnings of the piece and its final modeling, the complementary effect is achieved. A neutral pictorial application frames the cracks worked onto the surface, at the same time that the wall upon which the piece hangs acquires importance. The pictorial background is filtered through the holes completing the effect of the image and letting the artist's works unite with the aesthetic sensibility of the inhabitant. Jorge Elia is a quiet artist who chooses to separate himself from the everyday world in order to live intimately with this creation. This attitude leads him to ask the reoccurring question “What is there beyond all of this?” finding the answer once and again in his paintings.