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Bio

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Elena Ciolacu is a multidisciplinary artist - illustrator, fine artist, animator and author.

Born in Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania, she grew up with a special love for stories, illustrations and animations, but also with a great passion for history, classical literature, theology and culture. All of these were forms through which Elena sought to surround herself with beauty, harmony and nobleness, to escape from everyday life into worlds of adventure, inhabited by heroes, whether they were real or literary. Her early interests later influenced her professional path, and over time she experimented and created in a multitude of art forms and techniques. What may appear as indecisiveness is actually an artistic journey unified by one thing only: her love for stories and their potential to inspire, to shape characters and convey profound messages. This is why she likes to call herself a “visual storyteller”. 

Elena is currently working as an independent visual artist, providing high quality services in the fields of illustration, animated film and portraiture, while on the side pursuing her own fine art and storytelling projects.

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In her free time she enjoys reading, exploring nature, travelling, hiking, she also loves learning new skills, playing sports, being around animals and dreams about one day being able to play an instrument. 

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Artistic Creed

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It is an undeniable fact that art, in any form, has power over people, the power to transmit ideas, feelings, desires, aspirations - those that exist in the artists' own inner world, because no artist can create in a vacuum. Their thoughts, beliefs, passions or virtues, are channeled into the work that they create and consequently into the minds and souls of other people. Art in all of its forms is incredibly powerful and artists are channels that bring into the world a certain spirit, a certain energy, whether they are aware of it or not, and that can be either divine or demonic, it can either bring peace and grace into the souls of other people or it can bring temptations and darkness. The artist makes a conscious or unconscious decision about what or whom their work serves and each person must choose with great care what art or content they choose to consume. One becomes what one consumes.

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Rooted in her Orthodox Christian faith, Elena believes creativity and art are God-given gifts. To be an artist, a creator, is a joy unlike any other, it's a feeling of richness, of wonder. But like every other gift God has given us, it only reaches its purpose and potential when it is anchored in Him, when artists are co-creators with God and when they serve other people by bringing them closer to Good and Beauty - which is Christ. When artists rebel against God, they start glorifying their own egos and set out to reinvent what "good" and "beautiful" mean after their own desires. That ultimately leads to chaos, meaninglessness and ugliness, the traits of the devil, because good and beauty can only exist in relation to God. 

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