part of my life in a solid way since I started the art school and as the years passed it became my personal language and the best way that I know to connect with the world around me. What is the inspiration behind your work? Inspiration is something that is directly connected to observation. The more you notice things around you the more inspiration you will find to develop your own universe. I try to absorb everything around me by keeping my five senses activated and alert. From all the elements that come out in my work the main one is people. I am curious about people, about the way we are, the way we think and the way we connect with each other. Which technique do you use the most in your work? I work in different techniques and materials all the time and it is hard for me to stay with only one for too long. I prefer to jump from one to the next and this way my creative experience is more fun and interesting. Which technique would you like to learn or that you already know but just haven’t had the opportunity to apply to your work? I want to learn animation, this is one of my dreams and I am sure that I will do it at some point. I am educating myself about this field by reading about the subject, collecting some books and talking with people who are doing it. Why do you think the piece you chose is so representative of your work? I don’t know if this piece is the most representative of my work but the meaning behind it is one that I keep reminding myself all the time. The title of this illustration is Within Reach and it has to do with all the things that we are capable of accomplishing beyond the limits that sometimes we impose to ourselves. We can always stretch our imagination and our power of making things happen a little bit more, sometimes we think that what we want is so far away or so impossible to pursue but the truth is that the most important things are always in our hands. Please tell us something we would be surprised to know about you. We have a friend who is a wonderful Hollywood casting director, one day last year she called me in the last minute because she needed to cast me as a latino nun for the last Indiana Jones movie. I found this idea to be so fun so I said count on me and I will be there tomorrow. I went to her office where they were doing the casting process and all I had
Within reach to do was stand in front of a camera and say something in Spanish. The scene was about Indiana Jones coming into a convent where everybody was sick, I was supposed to tell him that something strange was going on and that was it. In the end Spielberg said that I was too young for the idea that he had about a nun so they ended up casting an older woman. My friend wanted to cast my Mom but she had just gotten back to Florida after a couple of weeks visiting us. I haven’t seen the movie yet but I am very curious to see who did the nun character in the end. And it was a great experience being an actress for about five seconds! :).
CONTACT INFO
ELSA MORA SHOP http://www.elsita.etsy.com BLOG www.elsita.typepad.com
INTERVIEW WITH ELSITA 29