Transformative and Tranquil

One of my favorite art pieces from the Fall 2017 edition of Elan is “Tranquility” by Kaylin Hillman. Coincidentally, it happens to be the first piece of the art in the book, which I think was a great choice. This piece is generally a very visually appealing one, especially with the blend of colors, but I think it represents much more than that as well. This piece is important to the current events going on throughout the world, all rooted to the connection of humans. There are so many human rights movements and huge decisions being made in the community right now that I think this was a perfect piece to be accepted into this issue.

All of the artwork in our current issue is astounding, but I connected to “Tranquility” immediately, which I think is a huge part of the piece and its message, the universality. The first thing I noticed was the colors, and how beautifully they blend together. The pastel colors stand out against the dark background and caught my eye. After that, I took in the message of the piece and the way the people have come together as one, no matter how different they are. Because this book deals with posing a lot of questions about humanity and ourselves, this was the perfect piece to open with because it visually offers the ideas that are laced throughout the issue.

Another reason I really liked this piece is because it literally brought a sense of calm and tranquility over me. A part of this is definitely because of how aesthetically pleasing it is, but another part was also because it made me think about my own life and the actions I take. Instead of being hateful or avoiding problems that don’t pertain to me, it’s important to speak up and act. As shown in the piece, we can come together peacefully and create beauty. The color of the two-people’s skin may be different, but the shades laced throughout their skin are the same, their shape and bodies are both the same and living. They both exist and in peace. Even if I don’t speak up act, it’s still important to connect with others and be there for people, because we’re all human and need someone from time to time.

This piece is a great representation of Elan. Not only does it represent the work and vast spectrum of what is published, it also shows the people who create the work published. Elan publishes work from all over the world, who create art and writing that differ in many ways. This piece shows a bit into the diversity and range of people published throughout the years of Elan, whether that be the artists themselves or the people found in the artwork. I think this piece is a beautiful mixture of Elan’s current mission and goal as a publication, and what it strives to grow to be.

–Kinley Dozier, Senior Managing Editor

Our Own Journeys

As artists, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut of our own art form, and forget to look at the other ways people can express themselves. An aspiring actor might go to plays, but never visit any art museums. A filmmaker could attend dozens of movie premiers but never pick up a novel. Sometimes, the best cure for stasis in our own art form isn’t to continue to immerse ourselves in it. The best cure can be to remove ourselves completely, and experience artwork that’s completely different.

While we were compiling the fall edition, I got a chance to see some really beautiful artwork. I was amazed at the talent displayed by these teenage artists, some of whom were even my peers. I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about visual art, but in some ways, that makes my reactions even more pure. I have no knowledge about art composition, or any of the technical terms associated with the craft. When I respond to art, it’s purely based on what it makes me feel.

Several pieces stood out to me, but one that really resonated with me was Comfort of the Holy Mother, by Victoria Sherwood. Everything about this piece just drew me to it: the vibrant colors, the clear focus, even the details of the background.

In my writing, I’m often guilty of being too concrete. I can bog myself down with meaningless details and pointless asides. I’ll spend paragraphs describing something that ends up not being important to the plot. It’s hard for me to let go of reality and move into the abstract, and this is something I envy about a lot of art that I love.

Comfort of the Holy Mother portrays a girl, surrounded by a green aura, floating in the night sky. No other context is provided. Even my interpretation could be incorrect—maybe she’s not in the sky. Maybe she’s in the ocean. The title of the piece gives a little background information, but not much. It’s enough to pique your interest, but it doesn’t reveal too much.

And in a way, that’s the point. There doesn’t have to be an explicit intent. Everything doesn’t have to be explained. Art has value simply because it is art and it is beautiful. That applies to visual art, yes, but it also applies to other forms, including writing. Sometimes as writers we think that we have to express our ideas in ways that other people can easily understand, but that’s not true. There’s something appealing about complexity, about a little bit of mystery.

In Elan, we have a variety of work, from a very diverse group of students. The topics covered in our magazine span from difficult familial relationships to the struggles of growing up, and each piece explores life a little bit differently. We are all a little removed from reality, floating through space on our own journeys.

–Meredith Abdelnour, Junior Layout-and-Design Editor

Natural Insight in “Crossings”

Recently published in the Fall 2017 edition was “Crossings”, a story by Douglas Anderson writer Rafael Pursley. This whole edition, in particular, had a number of pieces which struck me deeply for their power in creating and enlivening images, bridging an emotional gap between the natural world around the more interior, personal conflicts. As an artist with a passion for science, particularly environmental and natural disciplines, I was thrilled to see such pieces filter through our reading process. “Crossings”, in particular, manages to sum up the distance, the closeness, the power of the natural world on our human lives often deemed entirely separate.

The range of imagery struck me from the first time I read “Crossings”. It has one of those near-perfect balances of the gritty, nasty and all too real of a mucky wood pond, but also the ethereal, the breathtaking of a solar eclipse. As someone who is constantly trying to fit her all-consuming connection to the natural world into her writing, I found the accuracy of these images exciting. It can be so difficult to represent both the beauty and the obnoxious about nature in writing. The story didn’t just use physical description, however, it fit the adjusting landscape into the conflict of the story. This was one of the most impressive qualities of all: managing to demonstrate a threaded-throughout dynamic and interaction with nature to a shifting personal dynamic. Too often, I find myself trapped in making nature one-dimensional. It’s either all beautiful, or all destructive. The ups and downs represented in “Crossings” were not only more accurate, but also managed to create a more real, immediate emotional conflict for the reader.

Within the story, a narrator explores their complex and changing feelings towards an old friend. The eclipse is a sort of climax to their tension filled relationship. Only when the two are set in the midst of something gorgeous can the narrator see in sharp relief the built separations between themselves and this person they aren’t sure whether to love or to hate. That eclipse isn’t just a random, outside factor. Much of the short fiction I read today possesses a sort of skepticism and mistrust of the world around us. Characters are doubtful of anything that is supposed to be beautiful, unwilling to see or believe in the reality in front of their eyes, and they rarely tend to change. “Crossings” seemed to catch this world, to understand it, without being isolated in this behavior or out of it. It recognized both sides, and in that, captured a growing cultural divide between the total immersion in a human-built world, and the need to exist in what is beyond human. I’m constantly thinking about this divide, trying to find ways to place my fiction on one ledge or the other, usually failing and landing somewhere in the easily categorized “nature” art. “Crossings” has inspired me, given me valuable insights into how to innovate my own fiction, my own attempts to capture a personal understanding of the world in my art.

In this way, “Crossings” represents Elan as well as any piece we’ve published. Elan, being a student literary magazine, is all about finding ways for young thinkers to express the world they inhabit, a world often forgotten because adults are the voices of our culture. By capturing some growing, new cultural divides which teenagers must try to navigate, “Crossings” speaks to the modern teenage experience, wrapped in skillful writing, lively use of imagery and insightful mixing of the emotional world and the physical world.

– Ana Shaw, Senior Editor in Chief