Elena Ray lives in southern Arizona. She’s a self taught artist who has worked as an advertising photographer producing ad campaigns that are used internationally. Her personal pieces of art have recently appeared in Pierian Springs, Ladyfire and Olam magazine. Her original one-of-a-kind prints have been purchased by AMFAC Corporation. This collection can be seen in the Furnace Creek Hotel in Death Valley National Park. Her on-going body of work is represented by Feminine Mystique art gallery in Tubac, Arizona. Elena focuses on holistic practices, creating photography, photo illustration and mixed medium art. She says that the lens is the mythological eye through which she explores the mystical nature of Nature. She plays with the gods by recognizing them in ideas, in people, and in places. In her work she takes the loamy substance of the soul of human and forms ideas of birth and death as being continuously experienced through the enlightenment of the spirit.
The original symbols of nature are her props, and the landscape of her theater. She captures images digitally. She lights with a myriad of illuminating devices including natural light, studio strobes, a hosemaster and mirrors. She finishes the images by adding or refining the effects on her Macintosh computer. She then prints on Japanese papers, watercolor papers and a variety of hand produced papers using Ultrachrome inks. Her latest works involve prints collaged organically with mixed media then returned via a flatbed scanner to the machine and output as Ultrachrome prints. Elena specializes in bespoke portraiture with unique people practicing the holistic art. She currently works in Joshua Tree, CA, USA.
