As fan of the music and the medium, artist loves rock

By MAGGIE LILLIS
VIEW STAFF WRITER

Elissa Dawn Shakal has a hand that rocks the art cradle.

The artist has been showing her pieces -- hand-painted acrylic on flagstone -- since her husband, Don, brought home a sheet in 1998.

Fueled by her muse -- the Native American fertility symbol, the Kokopelli -- and rock music, Shakal is hoping to make her mark in the Las Vegas art scene.

"I was hooked from the first piece," she said. "No two pieces of flagstone are alike -- period -- unlike a canvas, where it's all uniform. That's not me. That's not my personality.

"Those pieces swiftly turned the four-bedroom house she and her husband share in the northwest into a personal gallery.

At the encouragement of her husband and friends, she began selling her pieces in local galleries. Her passion was so strong that Don Shakal encouraged her to quit her job and devote her life to her art. "A creative person has to create," he said. "If you don't, it's like not watering a plant."

Her pieces are being shown indefinitely at the Arts Factory, 107 E. Charleston Blvd. They range in price from $15 to about $500.

Shakal describes herself as a self-taught, lifelong artist and wannabe rocker, a trait that shows in the latest extension of her artwork. She tries to inject her humor and joy into her creations, she said.

When she first married paint to flagstone, the results were mostly Southwestern images. She continues to feature the motif but now works with cut flagstone bearing rocker imagery.

Luckily, the Kokopelli figuratively plays in both bands, she said.

The symbol found in several petroglyphs is depicted as a humpbacked flute player representing fertility and mischief.

"Put that together and you have your musician bad boy," Shakal said.

Her favorite piece, titled "Kokopelli Road," features a quartet of the symbol rocking across a road a la The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album cover.

"I stared at it for like a week, mesmerized by it," she said.

Shakal keeps that piece for herself.

When she started using 12-inch-by-12-inch cut pieces, Shakal said it dawned on her that they resembled vinyl records. Inspired by the music of the band Judas Priest -- Shakal dons a choker studded with her nickname, "High Priestess" -- she began painting near-replicas of album covers or original scenes.

She calls the sect of her art "Rock-on Rock."

One such piece included hand-painted studs such as a piece of rocker jewelry. Each stud took about three days to master.

Shakal listens to hard rock while working in her home studio. Sometimes song lyrics move her brush, and sometimes seeing rocker fashion does it.

"Every piece has its own little story," she said.

A few of her pieces include clockwork, and Shakal also sells prints of her pieces on ceramic coffee mugs as portable art.

She plans to stay in Las Vegas and help foster the local art scene.

"I think Las Vegas still needs to embrace the art world a little more," she said. "(To me) Art isn't a hobby. It's something I'm going to do until I die."

For more information, visit stonecoldart.com, call 646-7086 or e-mail info@stonecoldart.com.

Contact Centennial and Southeast View reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@viewnews.com or 477-3839.

 

Copyright © 2008
Elissa Dawn Shakal

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