Featured Artist: elliana prana

We are so excited to feature Elliana Prana! Elliana Prana is a local jewelry artist, whose bone pieces evoke a haunting, macabre surrealism. Her art explores profound questions of human life and death, each steeped in thought-provoking beauty, and the thick shroud of memory.

Where are you from?

Originally, I am from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, but have been traveling between there and Tucson for about six years.

What got you started making art?

I’ve been an artist my whole life. As a child, I loved to sit near my bedroom window and create drawings and stories. My friends and I would collaborate, developing entire universes and profiles for everyone who inhabited them. We wrote parody versions of popular songs (inspired by Weird Al) and even had a Green Day cover band called the “Gray Eagles.” It wasn’t much of a band, musically, since we were so young, but it was definitely an outlet for us as we came to age.

I started making bone jewelry a few years ago. The concept just kind of fell into my lap as I found bones everywhere I went. I really didn’t know what I was doing, but it felt like a natural flow and everyone around me was very encouraging of the weird and macabre creations I was wearing around. I just started going to thrift stores and taking apart old pieces of jewelry to turn into wearable oddities. It was nice to be able to repurpose secondhand materials and keep stuff out of the landfills, and I loved to sit and imagine the cute old ladies who must have worn the jewelry before it was donated.

It was kind of an odd cyclical thing, in a way, because not only was I using no-longer-alive materials found in nature, but I was also using beads and jewelry findings from humans that had potentially passed on to the after life and had their collections donated. Many might think that’s a grim outlook, but I think it’s beautiful.

What’s your artistic background? (experience, education, etc.)

I have dabbled with many forms of art, from music, to creative writing, drawing and painting, photography, fire dance, and now jewelry/ bone adornments.

I attended an arts high school for two years as well. My main areas of study were creative writing and classical string music. Being immersed in a creative space for seven hours a day, every day, allowed me a huge opportunity to explore and discover my own capabilities. We learned a lot about the creative brain, such as music memory, topic-based integrative learning, intuitive/automatic drawing and writing, what it means to be expressive, why it’s so important to for the the creative spirit, and so much more. It was an incredible blessing and opportunity that I feel really matured my artist mind.

Throughout college, i explored poetry and writing mainly, creating a travel blog and eventually taking on a few book projects as an editor. I really enjoyed studying the humanities, literature, history, philosophy, religion. All of the theorizing, searching for the “meaning of life,” and tearing apart each others’ arguments in a constructive way was so interesting to me. It questioned the prerogative of me as a creative. Yes I was creating because it felt good, but why did it feel that way? What did I have to give? What about my art was worthwhile or why should anybody care?

As far as my process for learning to clean and preserve bones for art, it was all self taught. When I first started, I was traveling the southern US and living in a van. I started finding bones everywhere I looked. It was like the universe was calling out to me, providing me with this incredibly strange art medium. It felt as though I had an opportunity to culminate this form of self expression while also giving honor and thanks to the animal kingdom and all of mother nature as a whole.

There wasn’t much available as far as resources or “how to’s” online or in books, at least none that I could find. There was a lot of trial and error involved, along with a lifetime’s worth of patience. Slowly I began to get a feel for how best to preserve these treasures and started making jewelry pieces as gifts. Now I try to be as open and informative as I can in helping others learn the process for themselves.

Who or what are your biggest artists’ influences?

There are really so many. I’d say the most significant influence is the natural world. I do my best to honor the cycles of life and death through my art. I feel that’s something we don’t do enough in the West. We are taught to fear death and all its unknowns. What we don’t think about enough is the beauty of regeneration when one passes and returns to the earth.

Of course I love all the classic spooky art as well, melancholy poetry and literature, mysticism and folklore. Michael Santini, the surrealist painter, has some amazing work. Anything relating to the magic of nature and the weirdness of man is a plus. I love the Sufi poet, Rumi, and have been inspired a lot by the work of Ram Dass as a death counselor. His ideas of the prosperity of death and honoring our loved ones in their “end of life” phase was really eye opening for me in developing my values around the concept of undead artwork.

Where do you get your inspiration for your art?

A great deal of the inspiration comes from following other artists on social media. Some that I really love are Kater The Alchemist, Cumberland Bootleg, Groovemeister Art and Shea’s Gems. Creating with friends is also a favorite. It’s a great way to connect with others in a way that makes you just distracted enough to keep from overthinking on whatever you’re working on. When I feel stuck, I usually put my craft aside and read. Poetry helps me get my creative juices flowing immensely because it challenges me to develop a “moral of the story,” a mission, for the piece that I’m working on. I also use tarot cards and try (sometimes fail) to meditate in order to generate purpose for my jewelry.

What brought you to BICAS?

My friend Shea of Shea’s Gems told me about the BICAS art mart this past spring. We ended up vending together and had an incredible time.

How has BICAS affected you?

Vending for the BICAS art mart was a really fun opportunity to meet with other creatives from the Tucson area. Everyone was very kind and welcoming, and the variety of creative offerings was very rad. It was actually my first ever vending gig and pulled me out of my hermit shell in the best way. I quite enjoyed meeting face-to-face and seeing how people received my artwork. Getting to feel the energy of the interactions, and seeing artwork sent off to their forever homes, was super special to me.

Why did you work with BICAS at Art Mart?

After reading up on the BICAS website, I felt drawn to get involved with a community that supports one another. Their purpose seemed genuine and super necessary for the people of Tucson. Having accessible transportation and mutual aid is what keeps this community alive!

Check out their Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Website for more of their work, and catch them at upcoming markets — at BICAS, and around town!

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