Elaine Fernandes

Elaine Fernandes is a 25-year old self-taught artist, originally from Mumbai, India. At the age of fifteen, Fernandes left home to study advanced level Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics in England. At the age of sixteen and as a young biology student in the UK, Fernandes was introduced to charcoal serendipitously when a friend gifted her some pencils. In England, the majority of Fernandes' black and white drawings were reproductions of images that she saw first in her head. Despite the lack of formal training in art, Fernandes felt compelled to express herself on paper. Along with her affinity for this medium of creative expression, drawing became a personal catharsis - it allowed Fernandes to give her inner discourses a tangible form.

After obtaining a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from the College of St. Benedict in Minnesota, Fernandes moved to Pittsburgh to attend graduate school at Duquense University. The very relationship - based art Fernandes has done over the past few years in Pittsburgh was the transformation of emotion into a physical form.
Fernandes' work is stark and often, minimal. The themes she deals with are those that she confronts in her daily Life - the paradoxical loneliness of modern urban society; the ecstatic highs and vulnerable lows of love; the delicate equilibrium of happiness. Fernandes' work is sometimes conceptual. Starting with a question or idea, Fernandes attempts to illustrate it on paper through spatial relationships and lines. In some pieces, it is the concept behind the drawing that matters more than the aesthetic of it.
Currently, Fernandes occupation involves cancer research at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and her art has grown to include painting, specifically acrylics on canvas.