Eils, Kellan

Hello all, my name is Kellan Eils. I'm a third year transfer fine arts major with a potential minor in art history. I'm mainly a sculptural artist casting in iron, bronze, silver and aluminum; however I gravitate towards any medium in which I can utilize my hands as well as the spontaneous aspects of creative chance such as wheel thrown ceramics. I like to combine a graphic aesthetic to my art as well as an organic disposition that I hope culminates in an engagement with my audience. I'm also a huge proponent of the rapidly expanding field of screen-printing on fabric, canvases and other alternative surfaces. One of my favorite parts of being a contemporary artist is exposing myself to other diversely different artistic backgrounds and allowing them to inform my art and the eyes it reaches.


In the "Out of the House, the Halo and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo" reading I found it particularly interesting when the concept of fetishizing females icons came up between gay males and Chicana lesbians. Has such a prestigious figure as Frida Kahlo really been fetishized by the community as much as Marilyn Monroe has? While the inclination to sexualize many role models has become a common practice, it would seem that certain vessels of such progressive outpouring would be seen as sacred and therefore excluded from the list of many less influential female idealists. This also leads me to wonder if a more feminist-oriented gay community of homosexual males would help to decrease the stigma surrounding certain heroines being simplified down to marginalization.

In "There's No Place Like Aztlan: Embodied Aesthetic in Chicana Art," I found myself wondering throughout if the utopian Aztlan atheistic is really just that, an unattainable utopia meant to symbolize "a 'no-man’s land' or more accurately a 'no-place' land" that is meant to simply inspire and fuel further interpretation of an unreachable goal? If an identity can be "rooted in nonexistence"perhaps the most vital form of preservation would simply be in keeping the myth and the legacies that follow perpetuating for future generations. The imagery of the "subjunctive netherlands of desire and imagination" cements the conclusion that the ceremonial and political qualities of Aztlan are what proliferate the interest in this extremely unique cultural sect, motivating others with its growth.