We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elise Gaffney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Elise , 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.
I returned to school at 31. I decided to leave my hometown to complete my Fine Arts degree, something I always wanted to do, but never completed when I had whatever excuse I had at home, I enrolled at East Tennessee State University for Fall semester 2021, and I graduated May 4, 2024. It wasn’t easy. I packed up my life, leaving half of it in storage, and drove from Northeast, Ohio with my pound dog, and two minivans filled with necessities to a studio apartment in an old building named Almeda in the heart of downtown. I carried the weight of the doubt and the collective reproach for my decision, as well as my furniture up four flights of stairs. My window overlooked T’s Market and the Appalachian mountains, too. The vehicles empty, I laid on my mattress on the floor in my new home in the dark and sobbed myself to sleep. I didn’t know anyone. We still wore masks in class. A student I tutored each week committed suicide just before Thanksgiving. I studied abroad in Greece. My grandma died while I was away. I worked. And cried. And created. And fell down some stairs while holding a child, hard and instantly. He wasn’t hurt. I still am. My car needed $700 in repairs in the last two months of a 5 studio class final semester. I got sober. I learned to weld. And sculpt. I tried so many different mediums and I did well. My work was selected for student honor shows and I met beautiful, wonderful people and lifelong friends. I even tried dating. Wild. Heartache. Final two semesters. My solo thesis show. I did it. I’m so glad I did. There was a great deal of growth and grief and pain and I had the community of art everyday to see it through. It turned out. In the way that all things do. In the way that you’re going to make decisions and nothing is ever going to be just right or perfect if you’re really out there, living, and breaking your own heart, and believing in people and different ways of living. I guess in the scheme of things, it doesn’t matter, a BFA isn’t a pipeline to a secure job, but it matters to me and I think that just might be the why of it.
Elise , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a photographer. I started making photographs at a young age, but it wasn’t until my late teens that I began to pursue it regularly. People commented on the way my work made them feel or see something they hadn’t at the time. It allowed me to understand that other people could experience, in some way, what I had in the moment, through the art that I was sharing. It was transformative, and the act of making pictures, in noticing, became a daily practice. I have two projects, one from 2019, and 2023 where I made photographs every day and wrote about the moment or the day or the life they all added up to be. While pursuing my degree, I began to work in video, installation and sculpture. Being open to many different mediums has been a form of therapy. My work started out very personal, and then it expanded to include a more connected human experience. I started with family photographs, and opened to the ways in which that lead me to home and place and belonging. Or not.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I feel incredibly lucky for the opportunity to be an artist. It allows me to feel deeply, see differently, and imagine something better. Art is therapy and sometimes there is that unmistakable, adolescent spark of hope, that warms me from the inside out. It is a better channel/outlet for my recklessness, impulsivity, and strong/vast/deep/oscillating emotions. Being an artist has led me to the understanding that change is inevitable and the space between the unknown is constant, we are suspended there. It’s most rewarding to travel through life with this lens.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I think just this idea that we have to follow a very clear path. That there is a point where we have everything figured out. The checklists don’t work for everyone, and if you’re feeling resistance to a life that doesn’t seem right, it might not be. Keep examining why it feels this way and become curious about what is on the other side.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.elisebgaffney.com
- Instagram: elise_gee
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elise-b-gaffney/
Image Credits
Elise Gaffney