About me

A Creative Motivational Artist

"Hi, my Norwegian name is Elin, or Nokuzola, among my Zulu speaking friends, or Helena by my friends from Mozambique. I am a creative motivational artist. Welcome to my organic art universe!”

With artistic roots as a certified glassblower, and having a bachelor in Childcare and Welfare, Elin Hauklien is known for her creativity and artistic skills. She grew up in Lillehammer, Norway and worked in the local glass workshop before and after she finished her apprenticeship time as a glassblower.

During the last 13 years Elin has devoted most her life to volunteering while living in Namibia and South Africa and travelling in many African countries. For about 10 years of that time, she has been doing production design related tasks related to video production, photography and display design.

Her art style has been shaped and refined through the influence of local and international artists and creatives she has collaborated with during those years till now. Elin loves people, diverse cultures and languages and she has a craving to understand people on a deeper level.

Through a vibrant imagination and intuitive processes, she uses different medias to tell stories through raw lines, patterns and symbolic, animated characters. To Elin, listening and observing our own life and the life of others is essential to having empathy for others, and to build closer connections with others and to increase creativity.

Process

Organic & Intuitive

The art series and their stories have come to life through an intuitive and organic process. The hand carved woodcut prints, the texture of the wood is merging with the hand carvings and making an organic unity with the wood texture.

Elin often creates concepts related to observations and expressions of human emotions, the conditions of people’s life and motivations for living. Contemporary artists like, Brazilian artist Ciro Fernandes, Mozambican artist Ezequiel Mabote, South African artist William Kentridge, Yayoikusama and classic artists like Edvard Munch, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso are among those who motivate and inspire her art.

Symbolic and abstract, black and white or oversaturated combinations, pop art inspired cartoonish animals, motives with humorous undertones, they all describe how Elin expresses her concepts. From childhood Elin has loved patterns and textures and being exposed to the use of patterns in Africa, she has integrated patterns as part of her signature mark. She likes her art to feel raw, hand drawn and organic. Rough, like life and earthy like the soil, to keep us feel grounded.

Besides working with woodcut prints, Elin expresses herself through mixed medias, through digital art, acrylic paint, water color, spray paint and often times with layers of different textures physically or on a digital canvas.

Woodblock print

Unique Prints

Each of the prints will look slightly different and thereby each of them are unique and numbered according. Some of the prints are developed further with water color and oil pastels. These are mono prints, as there is no art piece alike them.

During the years Elin was working with preventative programs, like MOT, for young people in Norway and Namibia, she used art and creativity as ways to connect with and to motivate young people. Storytelling, role plays, drawing, painting, playing and team activities. They have all been tools she has used to encourage young people to express themselves, create positive goals and deal with difficult emotions.

Elin says: I would like to share all what others have shared with me, striving to be a Creativity Booster for others. I don’t want to be a person that is able to only empathise with and understand other people, I want to be a connector and to connect with others to inspire creativity and positivity through art expression.

International

Collaboration

Interaction and collaboration fosters learning, creativity growth and wisdom. Throughout decades Elin has been interacting closely with international and local creatives, designers and artists. Currently Elin is doing an art collaboration with South African artist Ezequiel Mabote.

Multimedia collage