After a quarter century of creating fine art and craft, D.H.Elzer's original ideas can be found in over 800 personal collections world-wide.
The diversity of his work can be found in the streetscapes and focal points of public streetscapes and homes.
D.H.Elzer's artistic and literary contributions, cultural and political commentaries have touched many Canadians, however he is still considered an unknown in both literary and visual art circles.
Welcome
Don Elzer was born in Vancouver, B.C., he was raised on an orchard at the edge of a rainforest. He has lived throughout Western Canada, and presently lives in the Monashee Mountain foothills on a small farm at the foot of a mountain called Coyote Sleeping which is located in the southern BC interior. Don received his formal art education through Okanagan University College.
He has been practising art professionally since 1980 is considered a premiere Canadian contemporary folk artist, he makes few public appearances and while he is a prolific artist and his work is in demand it is rarely found in public exhibitions. Through private gallery representation in both Canada and the United States his mixed media wall motifs, masks, sculpture, bas reliefs and paintings can be found in private and corporate collections around the world.
Welcome to the online gallery of Canadian artist and writer D.H. Elzer
For the past number of years Don Elzer has directed his artistic energy towards the development of sculpture in the Wildcraft Forest. His creation mixes elements of nature with storytelling.
He can be found most days at his studio on the edge of the forest, creating new work along the trail system or maintaining the trails and the sculpture along the way.
ArtoftheWilderness.com
ARTIST STATEMENT
It is my mission to create and contribute using whatever medium is available to me. I seek to build a body of work that bridges the soul of the human experience with the beauty of the Earth and her inhabitants. To be successful is to be humble and simple, refining my craft in a deliberate way but at the same time being naive when trying to transmit beauty or a message.
I’m attempting to be part of the ecology of where I live, and to adopt this place as being a part of myself. In a modern context I am a new or different person of this land: I am neo-indigenous to this place.
My passion is to experience the miracles from my own abilities as a vehicle of both nature and spirit however diverse the results might be. I attempt to recognize the voices of my ancestors and the images in my dreams, fore they become the essence and the spirit of my work.
I am moved by the need to create figurative emotion in prayer within my sculpture, and adorn the imagery with the decoration of ceremony. To honour the mysteries that binds us all together, and be the storyteller.
Through my painting I am moved by the landscape and the light that shows the power of the universe, most often when a storm meets the Sun. Also, I find humour in the clichés that our society has with the natural world as well as the things that we fear, and as a folk artist I often choose to play in that field.
I am at the beginning of a very long journey, which is always changing.
