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Grit and Gratitude
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: August 2024
Cover artist Elena Kister’s lifetime of study and practice has found its full flowering with her arrival on the Plateau.
Not long ago, Ukrainian artist Elena Kister narrowly escaped Russian soldiers near her home in Kyiv.
She left with only her wallet and passport. Her adult son Victor, who lives and works in Cashiers, helped her make the final trek to America, her new home.
Although English isn’t her primary language her artistic voice has been active as long as she can remember.
As a child Elena was gifted in art and at the age of four, she knew she was creative.
“I was a painter from the beginning, my grandmother taught me,” She says.
At age six she entered Studio level training and eventually would graduate from The Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv, with a degree in Art and Design.
“All my life I have worked as an artist,” she says.
Before leaving Kyiv, she was employed at an Advertising agency and painted in her studio.
Her drawings and paintings reflect deep emotion. Marks and strokes powerfully, yet elegantly unfold and tell their stories. They weave and whirl throughout her anthology of Nature’s feathers, flowers, foxes, fawns, and all the flora and fauna of the Nantahala, each creature speaking volumes.
When Elena’s odyssey settled her into Cashiers she met with two local gallerists – David Berger at Mountain Mist, and Susan Whiteside Williams at Whiteside Art Gallery. They coaxed her to expand her repertoire to include landscapes and animals.
She says, “My focus is bright and beautiful colors.”
Elena works in acrylic, oils, oil pastels, graphite and ink. As a multimedia artist she creates in smaller 10” x 12” canvas’s on up to 48” x 48” and will do commission pieces.
She’s fallen in love with the beauty of the Appalachians. She says, “I am trying to make beautiful art, because I see all this beauty everywhere.”
You can view her beautiful work at Whiteside Art Gallery, Mountain Mist Gallery, and Object d’ Art, all three in Cashiers.
