Eva Eller: From Renaissance inspiration to digital originals | NFT CULTURE | NFT News | Web3 culture

Eva Eller is a digital artist and graphic designer originally from Tallinn, Estonia, currently based in Florence, Italy. Her art is deeply influenced by history, spirituality and the aesthetics of the past. Eva’s journey as an artist has taken her from studying graphic art in Estonia and Italy to working as a commercial illustrator and creating NFTs. In this interview we delve into her artistic journey, her inspirations and her thoughts on the digital art renaissance and NFTs. We had the pleasure of discovering Eva Eller through our good friend and partner, NoCreative. As soon as we saw her stunning digital paintings and learned about her journey as an artist, we knew we had to interview her and share her story with the public.

Can you tell us a little about your journey from growing up in Tallinn, Estonia, to studying graphics in Italy and Estonia?

Thank you so much for having me, truly honored and grateful!

It was quite peaceful growing up in Tallinn, as Estonia is a very small country and it suits my character. Since childhood, I always preferred to draw when I had free time, so I knew from the beginning that I would become an artist. I was sent to an art school at the age of 11, where I learned academic drawing and painting. My dream was always to travel the world and draw and survive on my art. I didn’t know how to do it at first, but the path of an artist was very clear to me from the beginning.

I chose graphic art as a bachelor because it is close to illustration and digital art. The beauty of graphics is that you can work in so many media. And I am grateful to have the opportunity to try printmaking at an academic level. I’ve always admired Albrecht Dürer and his etchings, so it’s really inspiring to be able to work with old techniques. Today, these techniques are reused in contemporary art, and it’s great to see that the tradition continues. I am currently based in Florence and finishing my studies here. Italy made a huge impact on me and my art. The Renaissance is the period I’m really inspired by, and Florence used to be the capital of Renaissance art.

What led you to move from commercial illustration to focus on digital paintings and NFTs?

I was a digital artist for many years, but as I mentioned before, I have a traditional art background as well. At 15 I started working for publishers and quickly realized that it would be best to draw digitally for books, so I started learning digital art, it was very interesting for me, a whole new world, but I learned quickly since I had a lot of drawing experience already. I missed a lot of lessons in high school because of illustration work too, I always studied well but right now I’m trying to fill the gaps I missed. Illustration work is great, but for 7 years I have never had time to sit down and draw something of my own. In the summer of 2022, I decided to work overnight and finally do it.

The concept of digital originals made me realize that this is really where I belong. I am seriously passionate about the technology and the digital art renaissance, digital art was not considered art before so I am very happy to see the change. I also prefer digital painting over any medium.

Your art is deeply influenced by history and spirituality. How do you incorporate these elements into your digital paintings and why are they so important to you?

I have always been fascinated by the aesthetics of the past, the beautiful architecture, the outfits, the calm and natural colors. More specifically, I am most inspired by everything that happened before the 19th century, while the Middle Ages and Renaissance are two periods that are most dominant in my work. I try to honor the old masters of the Renaissance and bring my own taste into my works. I cannot explain why I am so drawn to the past, as well as why I am so drawn to spiritual subjects. But I was genuinely curious about it since childhood, and a year ago I opened the Bible and began to read it. Several of my paintings are inspired by the Bible.

Can you tell who the masked angels in your paintings are and what do they symbolize?

Vision of my Angels of Knowledge came to me in July 2022. It was definitely a therapeutic drawing experience. I had accumulated a lot of stress and anger, and I remember drawing the angels completely unconsciously, just painting everything in red, which symbolizes passion to me, it’s a bold, vibrant color, it has a lot of power, strength and drama. I was also inspired by the Bible when I was about to read it for the first time.

My first painting “The Unforgiven” was inspired by the fact that God gave Satan and the angels the same choice He gave Adam and Eve, to obey Him or not. The angels had free will, following Satan or remaining faithful to God was an eternal choice. There is no way for the fallen angels to repent and be forgiven. And so the painting depicts two angels regretting their choice to go to hell.

I continued with the angel theme and gradually the design of my personal view of what an angel looks like became more and more clear, in my third painting called “VITRIOL” the angel is a representation of peace in chaos.

He sits in hell, firing and screaming outside, but he is peaceful and studies. Do your own thing. And I think this painting marks a new beginning in how I look at life and how much I personally grew up and changed. I strive to be like this angel. I just want to create and educate myself about this wonderful world despite the amount of evil around.

Education, knowledge, acquiring skills and being able to make money from them changed my life phenomenally, so through my work I convey the importance of learning and try to inspire people to pursue their dreams and go out and discover what they can do, what what kind of talents they have, how to monetize them. This is the message of my work.

The more I changed, the more I wanted to create my own kind of angel in my own universe. So I called them the Angels of Knowledge. I depict the Temple of Knowledge, the angelic everyday life surrounded by books, discoveries, friendship and mentorship. There are several types of angels: Baby angels, Grown up Angels of Knowledge, Angels of Light, the little children called chorts and occasionally there is a female figure involved.

As someone who has worked closely with renowned author Paulo Coelho, what insights have you gained from illustrating his books that have influenced your personal art?

For me this was an incredible experience, something I am really proud of in my illustration career. I am honored that my publisher trusted me and chose me for this work. I always wanted to read Coelho, so when I got this offer I started reading all the books for the first time and I’m a very sensitive person, I feel everything 200 percent more strongly and this helps me create actually.
We did The Archer, The Alchemist, The Pilgrimage and The Warrior of Light. I think I did this job when I was 21, so 2 years ago. The books had a phenomenal effect on me, I felt that I relate to them a lot. Some of the main lessons for me:

Love makes everything beautiful.
Be persistent and never give up on your goals.
Make mistakes, learn from them, and above all, live your life to the fullest.
Always follow your heart.

I also discovered a whole new style of drawing that I could do. I usually prefer to draw realistically as if it were a renaissance painting, but for Coelho I had to let go and make incredibly fast drawings to express the simplicity and minimalism.

How has your passion for Web3, Crypto Art and the digital renaissance shaped your artistic practice and approach to creating NFTs?

Embossing a digital original is a big deal for me mentally, I’m proud that digital art is being recognized. I will say that I am still a fairly new artist in crypto art, since I only joined in July 2022 and so far it is still hard to process how much happened and how it affected my life.
I am incredibly curious about technology and how to find ways to incorporate it as an art medium. I really respect the space, so it’s great to find ways that are possible to do here as an artist. AI integration, coding, interactive NFTs, trying out different blockchains, diving into DeFi, all this is incredibly interesting. I had no background in crypto, let alone NFTs, so it’s all very new and exciting to me. Sometimes challenging, but the curiosity is higher.

Can you share a specific moment or experience that brought you joy and happiness in your artistic journey and how it has inspired you?

I think I started working as a waiter around the age of 18, but eventually started making money just from illustration. I never hoped to sell only my personal art, but now it has happened and I am truly grateful and humbled, I can always go back to books, but if it were to happen, I would try to write and illustrate my own stories. Just as now I share more and more about my angels and their story, it evolves directly with how my life changes and with each work I share a little more.

Who are some of your favorite artists, both traditional and digital, and how have they influenced your work?

I like all Renaissance artists, like Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, Raffaello, Andrea Mantegna, Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Durer. From contemporary digital artists I like Piotr Jabłoński, Greg Rutkowski, Sam Spratt and everyone I follow on Artstation to be honest. I prefer Artstation to stay current with the artists I like because it’s just a portfolio platform, no other noise.

Renaissance artists certainly influenced me a lot in many ways, I have studied them all and still do. The digital ones taught me how to paint digitally and what is possible today.

What challenges have you faced on your journey as an NFT artist and how have you overcome them?

I think that in general it was a challenge to just learn about everything from 0, literally from 0. I started with 0 twitter followers too, like a complete nobody. But I was picked up by exactly the right people and communities from the start, so I’m incredibly grateful to everyone. Three communities that really helped me on my journey are @vcaresidency/ @WHALE members /@gmw_art and all my collectors and friends, you know who you are!

As the world of NFTs and digital art continues to evolve, what are your plans for the future and how do you see your art adapting to the changing landscape?

I am full of optimism and hope for the place. I hope to bring more awareness to Crypto Art and to help onboard new people! I also do NFT projects at my art academy, this would have been impossible several years ago. It is truly sensational. I also see digital displays improving tremendously and I think art will be everywhere. Because of how easy it is to share digital art + because AI allows more people to express themselves creatively. I hope we focus more on art in general than wars too!