![](https://heysocal.com/wp-content/themes/heymediadev/assets/img/logos/beacon_white.png)
![](https://heysocal.com/wp-content/themes/heymediadev/assets/img/logos/logo-white.png)
Elena Stonaker is always an artist, sometimes a muse. Los Angeles almost missed out on her. She almost moved to Orcas Island, was already far from her home in Colorado when she changed her mind, rented a Dodge Charger (no convertibles were available) and drove down to SoCal on Christmas Day. There she ended up at a dinner party with one of her favorite artists, the godfather of new-age painting, Alex Gray. And now it’s hard to picture Elena anywhere but in LA.
If someone asked you describe a sculpture, you might say: hard, rigid, and immobile. None of these words would describe Elena’s pieces. Her sculptures are soft, flexible, and cuddly—practically begging to be held and touched. Her craft is impulsive and hand-sewn. “I don’t connect with machines,” she says. Since they can be taken apart by pulling at the seams, her three-dimensional quilts are ever-evolving and shifting. She refers to them with female pronouns, as in “she likes to party.” Photos of her art get hundreds of likes on Instagram, but experiencing them IRL at her Koreatown studio gives you the full sense of their texture.
Processed with VSCOcam with k3 preset
We are able to provide high-quality political journalism to you for free thanks to our advertisers. So that you can continue to enjoy HEYSOCAL's in-depth reporting, we ask that you please turn off your ad blocker and come on in, free of charge.
Subscribe to our newsletter for this giveaway and many more. Also, stay in the loop for SoCal news and updates.
Your subscription has been confirmed. You've been added to our list and will hear from us soon.
Your request has been confirmed! We will get in touch with you shortly.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Essential Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Essential Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
You can find more information about our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy