We recently connected with Elijah Farrales and have shared our conversation below.
Elijah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
Like most creatives, I imagine, I first found a passion that personally resonated with me. Establishing and nurturing that passion laid the groundwork for any and all professional opportunities that would come along later. In fact, however, it was the evolution of that passion into something I’m able to share that steered me into professionally using my art – that art being cup stacking sculptures. To spare you from hearing the long-winded history of a young man finding himself curious about what could be done through stacking a bunch of cups, I’ll summarize by saying the development of my artistry has been a constant process and is now nearing its twelfth year. The important part that I want you all to know is that I did not share my art with anyone until year five. That’s four years without an audience, without a performance, and without my art being a service that was for sale. Come to think of it, it was probably that first sculpture I made in the common area of my college dorm that gave me an inkling that my art was a spectacle that people would be interested in viewing. Soon enough, my peers were looking forward to “Cup Tuesday” and my audience of none grew to a consistent few and then to many.
While the product of my work is fascinating, I found that viewers are also intrigued by the process as well. It’s rare during the creation of a piece that no passerby takes pause and asks a question about my work. It could be how I plan out my designs, if I’m gluing the cups together, or whether or not I am planning to knock it down, but there is always a question. Handily, I am perhaps the foremost expert on sculptural cup stacking and years of experience provide easy explanations on any question that comes my way. In a similar vein, the years have given me time to reflect and synthesize all that experience into coherent themes and insights on creativity and the creative process that can really be applied to anything.
The professional piece of my art is twofold, I share with people the products of my art – the sculptures – and then I also with them share the lessons from my process. I came to discover that I could use my art as a platform to share creativity, encourage others to pursue their passions, and to just provide enjoyment for viewers all through interacting with my audience. Those first few people in the college dorm that witnessed the debut of “Elijah the Cup Guy” and asked questions were instrumental in showing me that there was a direction to take this personal passion and find ways to share it with others.
Elijah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am an artist based in St. Louis, MO and I have somewhat of a unique medium: I create gravity-bound sculptures using thousands of cups. Yes, just one cup on top of two and then multiplied a thousandfold all held together by gravity. I first started to develop this art form when I was a teenager. Born out of a fascination with patterns and then a habit for collecting things, I started with red cups learned how to stack interesting forms while also keeping the teetering towers intact. Although I didn’t have a mentor to teach me the art of stacking, discovering things myself reinforced my love for this art and stretched my creativity to implement new ideas into my stacking. Since graduating from only red cups, I’ve added many elements including a whole rainbow of cup colors, light up sculptures, animations, and images/designs. Even while sticking to the simple object of a cup, there is still no limit to the possibility of creations to be made. The medium and process has kept me invested and so I still am forging ahead into this artform twelve years later.
My professional endeavors fall into special event sculptures for business or organizations and then as a speaker on the subjects of creativity and the artistic process. My art is unique enough that if an attendee sees a cup sculpture at an event, it’s likely the first they have ever seen. Most of my 3,000 cup sculptures will take slightly less than 2hrs to stack and will yield about a 10ft wide by 8ft tall design. Needless to say, the knockdown process is a fun sight and I have even raffled off the honor of demolition at fundraisers and special events. Near and dear to my heart are also the opportunities to speak and share my story and art with students. From elementary school assemblies, middle school career fairs, STEAM seminars, and guest artist talks – tailoring my discussion of creativity and describing the lessons in my process can be impactful for anyone. No matter the age, when provided ample cups and a space to stack people will become creative and engage in the artistic process and I hope to continue to be able to encourage others to be creative and apply that to any aspect of their lives.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Discovering my artistic identity wasn’t a clear-cut path. I struggled with calling myself an artist the first several years that I was stacking. Whenever I began sharing my art with others, I realized that everything I was talking about aligned with an artistic process and maybe I could call myself an artist. My art started as something completely for myself and stayed that way for a decent chunk of time; because of that, the most rewarding aspect of doing what I do now is being able to share my art and story with others. There could be a person with a passion that they think others will find silly but seeing a guy enthusiastically talk about stacking cups and showing what he has done with it could encourage them to share that passion. Or maybe a teenager will see that art doesn’t have to be a painting or pencil sketch and can really be comprised of anything. And there could just be the slightest chance that I inspire the next cup stacking artist, who knows!
: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Cup stacking is an expression of my own curiosity. How can pieces interact with one another to create a whole? What can be done when repeating a simple object? Where can other medias play a role in taking this art in new directions? There will always be that core curiosity in why I stack and continue to stack – that internal mission will stick with me. The external facing mission that I’ve also adopted is to be an advocate of creativity. Exploring art provided me an outlet growing up, although I didn’t have as fully realized of thoughts on it at the time. And now that I do have years of experience and a mode of sharing that is engaging and interesting, I feel that I can help provide the introduction or space to explore that was so very important to me when I was younger.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elijahfarrales.wixsite.com/thecupguy
- Instagram: @elijah_thecupguy