Koal Elowyn

Acrylic Painter

Koal Elowyn is a non-binary freelance painter. In a road of self-discovery, they paint in order to find the answers, and to some degree bring light to questions they need answering or even help answer questions others have had.Whether Koal is painting a specific subject or even to paint what they want, their favorite subjects to cover are psychology-related. Subjects that they’ve touched upon and spark conversations involving trauma, different types of coping mechanisms, psychological distress, and a deep dive into the mind. They love capturing what is seen from the outside and building onto its actual feelings and emotions from deep within; viewing it in a more abstract way.When looking at their art, Koal wants a viewer to empathize with one of their paintings. Find their own meaning which requires you to think for yourself, looking inward, and connecting your life with what you believe to see in front of you. So long as someone is able to connect themselves with one of their paintings, they will feel as if they’ve done their job as an artist.

Confrontation

I wanted to have a dialog with the person on the canvas. Look at them and understand what they are going through, sympathize with their pain, and empathize, finding similarities in your life with theirs.

Scavenger

This series is all about the journey of finding oneself. Through the hardships someone goes through in life and taking what you can from it. Whether it be gain or disregarding it. If you let your past control you or you let the present guide you or if you daydream towards the future.

Emotion Intensity

By definition, it’s a personality disorder that’s defined by its constant pattern of mood swings and emotions within a spectrum of a more vivid and intense feeling. A mix of both positive and negative emotions. I haven’t heard of this disorder until recently and was captivated by it. I’ve had a lot of moments in my life where I felt so emotionally intense and varied that it became difficult to describe what I felt. What I’m wanting to do with this series is showcase particular moments in which these intense emotions would happen, and capture that moment and feeling.

Self-Being

This whole series is a complication of me being selfish. I hit a point in my life where I didn’t feel like I knew who I was and where I was going. In some way, I wanted to see myself in separate beings, in different places and in different circumstances. It’s difficult to truly understand and capture ones whole self in a single piece, so why not make a series about. All I had at my disposal was myself and the ability to show rather than tell how I felt. So at times where I felt my strongest emotion, repeating action, and opinion, I painted it. I did this for the reason of finding out who I am, and what I do. I wanted to get it out on “paper” rather than internalizing it. And at the time I felt my life was messy and in my paintings I wanted to express that same type of feeling; dirty, thrown together and sloppy.

Trauma

By definition, trauma is an emotional response to a damaging and distressing event. This experience is what leads to an overwhelming amount of stress that becomes to difficult to cope, which can become long-term if not given help. I made this series for the specific types of trauma. I wanted to shed light on this subject because of how touchy it can be, but being respectable in conducting a way of going about it. I wanted to fully understand what one had to go through. and still go through before making a piece just so that I could truly capture that feeling. That exact moment, that exact feeling of what is happening and what results from it. I felt like painting these in human like forms would give people, a closer connection with the painting, I wanted people who haven’t experienced these types of events to understand the weight behind it, to feel some sort of empathy.
Disciplined Disciple
Represents trauma caused by physical abuse
Apprehensive Nights
Represents trauma caused by humiliation
False Direction
Represents trauma caused by sexual assault
Until Morning
Represents trauma caused by loss of a child (miscarriage)
Recess
Represents trauma caused by child abuse (neglect)
Bloodied Veil
Represents trauma caused by a suicide attempt
From A Good Man
Represents trauma caused by domestic violence
No Need For Desire
Represents trauma caused by conversion therapy
Try and Have A Good Time
Represents trauma caused by an accident (drunk driving)
The School's Profit
Represents trauma caused by school violence ( school shootings)

Coping

By definition, coping mechanisms are strategies that people would use when faced with stressful or traumatic experiences to help cope with those emotions and pain. While coping mechanism can be healthy, there are some negative ones; those are the ones I wanted to focus on in this series. The reason to why I wanted to speak on these negative coping mechanisms is because I feel as if they aren’t talked about in comparison to the more positive ones. I wanted to shed light on this and for us to understand how bad it can get.
Here Comes A Thought
Represents the coping mechanisms for fantasizing
New Flesh
Represents the coping mechanism of self-isolation
Doo Dah
Represents the coping mechanism for alcohol/substance abuse
Sincerely, Yours
Represents the coping mechanism for social distancing
One on One
Represents the coping mechanism projection
Red Bone
Represents the coping mechanism for denial
A Note to Self
Represents the coping mechanism conversion
The Feeling is Freeing
Represents the coping mechanism repression
Unravel Me
Represents the coping mechanism trivialization
Dreams of William
Represents the coping mechanism for self-harm
Another Chance
Represents the coping mechanism idealization