We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elin Hunter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elin below.
Elin , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
Taking a risk would sum up my entire life as I have always been an Artist even before I knew what it meant to grow up. Getting in the zone and making the artwork was natural for me but growing as an artist into something that could fit into the Artworld organically and allow me the freedom of total beautiful and truthful expression thru my art has taken time living and perspective. The maturing of my work has been something I could not rush and keeping myself afloat and functioning as a person who has the energy and strength to keep the Artwork evolving in a world leading me astray has been a challenge. Ultimately my acquisition of compatible to the Arts survival brought me back home to my art giving it more passion, food for thought and craft than I could have ever planned or imagined. As for having a normal life, this idea I had to let go of. My needs and wants for this “normal life” I ultimately realized were more about my ego demanding that white picket fence two kids a husband and a good 9 to 5 career which ultimately felt oppressive and like a diversion. The risky path I have taken has been focused on the preciousness of time and energy and how to use these resources of my life the wisest for my goals. The path was not always clear but I knew as long as my needs were met in terms of spiritual and survival I could better produce from a stable foundation. Another words those part time jobs for college kids were perfect for me, a full-fledged career would have hindered my path in the same way that having a family life that demanded I change into a “stepford” wife would have. The investment I made into my art has ultimately allowed me to stay a state of awe for my entire life and as I also follow thru on my duties and obligations in life, I am truly grateful to myself for taking this risk and those who have showed me the emotional support, contributed creatively to my projects and been there spiritually and financially in my times of darkest hour along the way.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
It takes time for a truthful Artistic breakthrough. I knew this when I moved to NYC at age 17. After 2years of Art School and several very focused Art programs prior to College I left school and began my Art Painter life for real to express my mind’s eye honestly. The knowing I had that if I felt something others have felt the same thing drove me. My artistic contribution is filtered through me to others to share a feeling of awe, joy and relief from the trials and tribulations of life. Because this is expressed visually my goal within each work is to solve any aesthetic problems making each piece beautiful in its own way, a puzzle solved. Each artwork to me is an emotional experience, a truth deeper than the surface of a reality or programing received that fogs inner wisdom. Inspiration has always led me through my mortal fragileness with a perspective of the times I live thru and the timelessness of outside one human body, like many generations of artists of the past I too work hard to create art that will still give long after I am out of body as a loving gift to the future. What sets me apart from other creatives is my own personality and decisions I have made from the circumstances of my life and what I find visually pleasurable to look at. I have built upon my aesthetic taste and style that came through my early honing and over time I added more skills to it. I was born a California Girl but grew up moving all over the world as I came from a American overseas employed family moving every few years. As a young woman out on my own early I was surrounded by musicians and wrote poetry, my paintings took on a sound story side as I became a band singer and then later I got into filming these stories as “music videos”. As I embraced the role of a lead singer in original bands, I also eased into working as a dancer as it gave me freedom and time to create. As the dance business began to consume me I fought back with handmade Costumes working with many materials and bling to survive an environment that rewarded me for exotic dance movement combined with glamorous unique costume and a charisma style of personality. This unanticipated seamstress part of me now is filtering back into my fine art as I am working on presenting all my paintings as I release them into the art world incased within wall hangings of ceremonial glamour and sexuality having come full cycle back to my art. I slipped out the dance world during covid era while the bars where all shut down, having been slowly releasing music again thru the internet staring in 2015 my dance moves filtered into my music videos along with various personalities I needed to tell a story combined with Art and costume. My decades of creating Art, Music and costume while going through a mental maturing process brought me back to the beginning of my original purpose. My calling for a full art breakthrough finally happened after decades of working for it fits everything I have done together better than I ever could have planned, like puzzle with all the pieces. Everything I create is coming out to the public thru varies social media platforms that entertain like YouTube and my Art website and social media which will inform my next movements. Ultimately of course the work is coming out through the Art Galleries which once I have completed the 1st of 10 wall hangings surrounding customized for each individual piece. This process is undergoing changes which is why I have not put any photos of this wall hanging work yet, but will soon enough. My work will keep coming along with the release of more songs and videos. as time allows.
Have you ever had to pivot?
There have been many times when I have had to pivot in the business and lifestyle to keep on going in the arts and keep me alive also (rehab) without selling my soul or my art out for commercial success protecting that special zone where craft meets creation. Being in the nightlife created boundaries with outside forces while protecting my visions from being watered down and exploited incomplete for the sake of a viable version without substance to go public prematurely. Being a creature of the night I was lying low focusing on creating privately. Any exploitation that happened in my pay jobs was self-propelled in a less personal way so I could get through that barrier between having a side job and becoming a entrepreneur. The quarter pivot regularly happened prior in my dance jobs when my tolerance was to the edge, so I did a lot of switching clubs keeping myself at a distance on the surface of the game. As my vision and sense of self-respect grew for the Arts, I finally left the bar business altogether in 2021 making a full and complete pivot finding myself more interested in a job away from the nightlife. I had the tools I needed to create and the plan on how to present the first round of works to go public with at my plate at the Art table. So, I gave up my car and proceeded to organize my life to live off a lot less by having a earlier schedule and vibration to finish off my plan for my works presentation out to the people in the public business of the Arts that are joining in my venture.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a lifelong Artist has always been that no matter where I go or what I do I always have my Art as an outlet, a point of concentration a way to get in a zone of awe. During the creative process I enter a vast conciseness with and without my personal human entity. For periods of time, I completely forget and am living only in the moment focused on the craft of it taking in spiritual downloads. Then after, when I look, listen and contemplate the work I am rewarded. If the work is going well or if I am challenged by it does no matter because I am in it and throughout the process as I refine it into something I call finished I am satisfied for I enjoy all stages because I suspect I will ultimately solve the piece. The unpredictable nature of where the work will take me and how it will get to the point of closure is always a new mystery to unravel. Then years and decades later I remember everything about the work as I time stood still, and I am so glad that it exists like those days are still there right with me I am back in that zone I can smell it feel it taste it and hear it like chatter off in the distance still ringing in my ears, but yet somehow I am farther along having built upon those days. Being an Artist is a beautiful way to live because no matter how difficult your circumstance of existence, humble or grand you always have that treasure a gift that keeps giving to whomever enters its presence and it can take them there into your heart.
Contact Info:
- Website: elinhunter.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farrahfire/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elin.hunter.9
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elin-hunter-aka-farrah-fire-b3223260/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/farrahfire
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_bIV_RBqiyMsZHk1Xn5dpw
- Other: farrahfire.com https://www.instagram.com/elinhunter/
Image Credits
The photos of Elin are by Varton Photography