Eel Arts

My name is Elijah Goldwag and I am a lifelong collector of things, lover of stuff, and maker of art.

I am an artist and art-teacher living in Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. Currently I make art in my parent’s basement. I like to use commonplace materials such as cardboard, recycled plastic, and papier-mâché as they are cheap and readily available and offer unique qualities and opportunities for application.

I draw inspiration from the world around me. Nooks and crannies between buildings beckon to me with promises of tiny worlds, reflections in sidewalk puddles ripple through my mind, possibilities, opportunities, fleeting but electrifying.

I rarely finish projects because I am so in love with the process. Progress is fun, playing is fun, but finding satisfaction in completion is near impossible.

I believe that exploration of method and material functions as play and leads to art that tells you about yourself.

Never having gone to art school I get overwhelmed by not knowing the “proper” way to do things. When I work with cardboard, I can let the material speak to me and become familiar with its properties without spending half of my energy battling my own inner critic.

With materials like this, I am able to streamline my creative process by freely experimenting without worry about wasting expensive resources on something that I may never finish.

The more I create, the closer I feel to something great. I am not sure what that something is but I want to keep moving towards it.