The Artist Series: Elissa Dishell (aka Grandma)

A portrait of Elissa Dishell

For my Grandpa Don's 85th birthday, I flew to Detroit with my aunt, Susie, to surprise him. Oh, was he surprised! So much so, that we truly took the words out of his mouth. After his confusion wore off, we all embraced. It was a special start to a unique trip. I was able to interview both my Grandma and Grandpa about their lives--my Grandma's art and my Grandpa's family history. 

My Grandma is a talented artist. She found her passion "late" in life, which I find inspiring. 

While back in Detroit, I realized how much work she has produced over the past twenty years and joked, "Your paintings could cover every square inch of the house!" We toyed with the idea laying out all of her works on the floor for an epic photograph and ended up making it happen. Even after covering the floor with hundreds of watercolors, there were unopened boxes under her bed! She is Mrs. Prolific. My Grandma also took me to her exhibition at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center (BBAC). She lit up being around the artwork. It truly is her home away from home. 

My Grandma has a unique personality. I have known her my entire life, but only recently began to understand her as an artist. She is full of such energy--innate, exploding, exciting, passionate energy-- that I can only pray for on my best days, after a perfect night's sleep and an awakening workout. She is extraordinarily focused, humble, and prolific. As my Grandpa says: "When she approaches her canvas she 'swarms' it," whereas other artists might strategically approach their paintings, dabbing thoughtful strokes onto the clean white surface. My Grandma works in a fury, ever-so-determined to create something of the right emotion and expression. And she does. She is powerful and commanding, and her sheer energy is enviable. 

I look up to her. 

-Elissa Dishell

Jessica: Tell me how you became an artist.

Elissa: I never took an art class in my whole life. In high school, my friend Judie said, "C'mon! Pudgie and I are taking an art class."

I said, "I don't know how to draw. It would make me nervous. I will never take an art class."

Then I had a surgery in 1994 and you, Jessie, were five or six years old. You said, "Grandma, will you draw with me?"

You always liked to draw, and I told you, "Sorry, Jessie, I don't know how to draw." 

You said, "Just try."

Me as a child, visiting Detroit -- where my Granda and I started doing art together

Elissa: So there was a tiny cartoon in the a paper. I studied it for a few days and copied it. It was time for you and your mom to go back to Utah, after visiting me from my surgery. When I got better a few weeks later, I thought, “Something is missing from my life.” I am going to take drawing lessons and maybe paint someday. So that is how I started: drawing and drawing, and then I moved onto watercolor for some years. 

When your mom got sick, I stopped creating for five years. Then I bumped into a girl after Amy had passed away. I could do nothing from the grief. This girl said: “Why don’t you take an art class?” 

I said: “Well, where?” and she told me about this wonderful charcoal class. It saved my life. Art classes changed my life. I was able to draw again. I used to wonder why people felt stuck and could not paint anymore, when they had had some tragedy or trauma in their life, but I came to understand.

I started making art again and then got into oil painting and more charcoal. That is what I like to do now, but I am not so good. 

Then, you came to Michigan this trip and said: “I want to see your artwork.” So we pulled out hundreds and hundreds of paintings from under the bed and laid them out on the floor, which I never even thought of doing.

Elissa Dishell - artwork spread out all over living room floors

Jessica: When did you realize that painting was a positive force in your life?

Elissa: After I started drawing, I took my first class at the community house. I was always afraid of going to the BBAC, because I thought the artists were so wonderful, and I wasn’t ready. So I started painting with a teacher. It was a small class. We did watercolor. My teacher took people on painting trips, where they did art and shared rooms. 

I didn’t want to share a room, so I thought maybe your mom would go with me. Amy said she would go, so she met us in Mexico on the Mayan coast. It was so fabulous: the casita right in the sand. They loved Amy on the trip. Half of the girls didn’t even paint though; they shopped. But your mom and I did a lot of paintings, and they later had a show of the work in Lansing. 

In Mexico we ate next door at a huge palapa. The tables seated eight. There were professors, artists, other people, and the most interesting characters I have ever experienced. It was kind of like camping in Algonquin park but in Mexico. People actually camped on the coast there! They had tile showers that they took outside, and they slept in Palapas with screens. It was a wonderful experience, and I have lots of great pictures, which I should show you, Jessie.

Jessica: Where do you get your inspiration?

Elissa: I don’t have much inspiration lately. We do exercises in class that come from the head. I am anxious to paint outside and will do that this summer.

When I go on trips, I sit with pen and ink and bring my watercolors. Often people paint from their sketches, so I have done that. A lot of people make tiny oil paintings from their sketches.

Jessica: Why do you think that art is important?

Elissa: Well...I was always friendly with artists, but I never painted myself. My mother dragged me to the art museums growing up. My brother always had a wonderful art collection. I loved it. Susie once said to me: “Your walls! Every wall is empty.” Eventually art became part of our lives. 

But back to the question: especially as you get older, you think about what you can do alone. I play bridge, (but you need three other people to do that) and bridge is not a passion. I used to feel passionate about sports, but not so much anymore. 

Art is a passion. When I do it, it lifts my spirits. I have met so many wonderful people through art and hope to continue going to the art school: my second home.

Elissa Dishell standing in front of her artwork

Jessica: How would you define your style?

Elissa: Somewhat impressionistic. I don’t know how to draw well, because I didn’t go to art school. People that went to art school though, have such a time loosening up, because teachers in those days (before Jackson Pollack and Abstract Expressionism) wanted you to close every line and draw every leaf. That became too literal. As many teachers have said, if you want to paint like a photograph, then just buy a photograph. I’m not knocking Photorealism, because Photorealism is beautiful and has its place. But for the average painter, to sit there and try to draw every leaf is insane, and it’s not fun.

Painting should be an expression of how you feel inside. You could be literally a perfect draftsmen. But if you are painting to show passion or something within you, then you have got something. It may not even be well done, but emotion is something to look for in art.

Jessica: I think it's important that a painting makes you feel something. Some people respond to Photorealism compositions that are identical to an photograph and take them to a certain place, and others respond to the impetus of emotion -- what comes from the person’s soul through artwork like Abstract Expressionism. Not everyone enjoys abstraction though, and that is OK.

Elissa: When I was in my twenties, this artist took me around and wanted to show me a variety of art. Don and I couldn’t spend money on art when we were young and married. This artist asked me about my impressions of what I was seeing.

I said: “I don’t know anything about art. How can I talk about it?”

He said, “You don’t have to know anything about art. How does it make you feel?” And that is what he taught me.

Jessica: When you look at the paintings of others or your own work, how do you gauge whether or not that painting works?

Elissa: Just if it strikes me as beautiful in color or line. I am mad for Impressionism.

Jessica: That must be hereditary. Me too. What is it about Impressionism that you love?

Elissa: I love the Impressionists’ color, their spontaneity, their strokes, the way they blend things. Light and shadows are wonderful things. My teacher is marvelous and has me looking for things I never thought of before. Even when I drive down the street I see shapes of trees and light and certain things lit up that I never would have seen before. I have been told that being an artist, you learn how to see again.

Jessica: When do you feel most free while making art?

Elissa: This last couple weeks I couldn’t do much. Don had surgery. You kids were coming into town. Even when I went to class it was hard to lose myself, running from the doctor’s office to art studio.

I feel the most free when I can get up and paint without pressing matters interfering--when things are going smoothly. In art class you can forget about what is troubling you or what your problems of the day might be.

Elissa's Artwork

Jessica: Do you think it's possible to be a successful artist while maintaining an alternate career and social life?

Elissa: No. I was studying this in regard to an artist who was a graphic designer. He made good money. One day he said, “I want to paint and make art for myself.” He said to his wife who is now an artist: “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

They packed up with only a few dollars and went to Paris, Australia, and Ireland and traveled, maybe for five or six years, while selling paintings. He came back to The States, and with about six dollars left, he gradually started to make a living: writing books, giving lectures, you know. It became his life. Oh, he is a wonderful artist.

You have to sacrifice everything for your art. I can’t do that now. I will never be great. I do it for enjoyment. If that’s going to be your life, you really have to give up a lot. It’s wonderful to have a companion who enjoys art with you.

One of the girls in my class said, “I want to be a professional artist.” She is probably about 50. And that is possible, because her kids are no longer living with her. This other girl, who just sold three paintings at the BBAC, paints day and night and it shows. Her life is her art. She sells things because she wants to.They paint and work at it like a job. 

I don’t think you can be where you want to be, while out socializing all the time. Art has to be all consuming. You can’t lose your ability to focus.

When I read about the round table: the artists, the writers in Paris--it reminds me of the importance of exchanging ideas. Artists could be with artists and writers could be with writers. You want to know what others are doing. Art is a whole world! 

I remember in the 1960s, how the artists were all downtown with the musicians and everyone creative. I wished I could be part of that. But I didn’t know that I even had creativity.

Elissa's Artwork

Jessica: I think that all people have creativity and that it is just a matter of harnessing that energy and focusing it in a certain direction. That’s why I believe that you are such a talented artist: you have strong energy and focus. You get consumed.

Elissa: The fact that you have a job in the art world is a great thing. To be in the art world! Wow. I find that a lot of people I am taking classes with are retired. One day after their careers, they say: “ I am going to paint something."

For you, Jessie, keep working in the art world, even though it is hard work. If you move away, you need to stay within the arts until you can do it for yourself. Stay in touch with your practice and other artists, and broaden your horizons.

Jessica: What do you hope will come of your art in the next years?

Elissa: I feel I’m at a stand still right now. By reading and doing, I hope that I can develop and better mix the colors and apply them. I hope that I will look at a still life now, and then next year I will see a difference in progress. I want more color and the right colors. I need more color. I know what I want to do and where I want to go: I want my work to be impressionistic, but I usually have to paint what I see. I wish I had more imagination.

Jessica: I think you have a lot of imagination. You’re a doer: less in your head and more action-based. You have imagination, and that is why your paintings have a unique style.

Elissa: They do have a style.

Jessica: So you know in your heart what you want to paint then?

Elissa: Yes. I hope to become a better portrait artist as well. I love the face. Faces fascinate me. Whenever I see someone with a crooked nose or a receding chin, I wish I could paint them. People with regular features though…I have trouble with.

My Grandpa says that he has been immortalized through this oil painting.

Jessica: Now that you are approaching 80, what advice would you give to aspiring artists or anyone aspiring to do what they want in life?

Elissa: I hope that you find your thing young. I thank God everyday that I was able to find this wonderful way to express myself. I hope that people can find theirs, because it is a gift to find your passion.

When you are young and doing other things, if you know what you want to do: DO IT. Develop it! Because even if you have to work at something that you don't like, your passion will compensate.

At this point, if I didn’t have the painting and drawing, I don’t know what I would do. I find myself worrying that this one has passed away and that one has passed away (and I’m talking about being my age of course). Having something to do is important. You could play golf, but then you’re done after a few hours. Then you’re worrying that this one is sick or that one is sick. You hear something everyday.

When you're younger, it’s not everyday that there is trauma. Years went by without anything. Now everyday, it's adjusting to another loss or hearing sad news. When I wake up and nothing has happened, I think “how wonderful!” But there were many days like that when I was younger.

I read in a book that if you wake up mad and tense, then everything goes wrong. Look at the bright side, and don’t look back or forward too much. Live in the moment, and at least find something that makes you happy.

After your mother passed away, it said in this book: If you’re driving, instead of letting the mind wander, concentrate on the license plates in front of you and take in the trees. Concentrate on what is around you.

Even if next week you have a ton to do, worry about it when it comes, but tell yourself to do what you are doing now. It is hard, but if you do it, you will be happier person. You will be more positive. 

Be grateful you’ve got your health. It is the most important thing in the world. It really is. 

Pursue what you love. I chose art because it is something I can enjoy alone, without another soul.

Jessica: When I think of life without art, I feel that it would be nothing.

Elissa: I agree.

Jessica: That includes all forms of art: music, dance, film, painting--you name it.

Elissa: I agree and feel that there is expression in everyone.

Jessica: Yes, Grams. Is there anything that you want to add?

Elissa: I wish I was in my 50s now. Why? Not to live longer, but so I could take life drawing. I wish I had more time to develop as an artist and as an artistic person.

Jessica: You’ve done so much in just 20 years.

Elissa: I can’t imagine my life without painting.

Jessica: You’re one of my favorite artists!

Elissa: Thank you, Jessie. It is all consuming. I think about it night and day. It wakes me up in the middle of the night. Always have a pad and pencil nearby.

Jessica Csanky and Elissa Dishell together

Three Generations together at my Grandma's art show

More examples of my grandmother's artwork:

Oil on canvas portrait by Elissa Dishell

Colorful impressionist style flower painting in oil

Colorful impressionist style flower painting in oil

Impressionist style landscape overlooking the ocean

Impressionist style landscape with palm trees and golden clouds

-Elissa Dishell