Artist Spotlight... ELSITA ❤

The winner of the paper cut print by Elsita is BRENDA. Congratulations!

“Anytime I try something new in my art, I get to know a part of me that it is less obvious." - Elsa Mora

Born and raised in Cuba where she graduated from art school, multimedia artist Elsa Mora {Elsita}, learned the most important things she now knows from her mother.

"She always told us that the number one thing that anybody needs is education. The second thing is to find out as soon as possible what you are good at. And the third thing is to make your dreams come true, not by a miracle or good luck but by hard work and discipline."

Heeding her mother's wise advice, Elsita developed a very successful career as an artist and now lives very happily in Los Angeles with her creative husband Bill {a Hollywood film producer} and their three children.
How Elsita finds time in her busy life to create such beautiful works of art is a mystery to us all, but she manages to create many wonderful things and take care of her Etsy store where she sells super sweet illustration art prints, adorable toys, jewelry, sculpture, the most delicious paper cuts and other handmade gorgeousness.

Spotlight... Elsita ❤

✿ Tell us about You...
My name is Elsa Mora and my nickname is Elsita. I was born and raised in the island of Cuba and I currently live in Los Angeles, CA with my husband Bill and our three children. I am always busy like everybody else and a fun fact about myself (not so fun sometimes) is that I am the worst person on planet Earth finding directions. I remember that during the first week, after I bough my first tiny house in Camaguey, a province of Cuba, I had to go out with the address written on a little paper so on my way back home I could ask people how to get to my own house.

✿ What inspires you?
Anything interesting inspires me, specially things that are new to me, or things that I have never heard about. My ideas come from some little corner of my brain where there is always a busy mini-me dreaming about the next thing that I would like to make or do. The other me, the taller one (still short, I am 5.2) is always taking care of all the practical things.

✿ Apart from creating things, what do you do for fun?
Honestly, the most fun thing that I have been doing lately is something like this: I close my eyes and dream about being less busy. It makes me smile, and then I go back to normal.


✿ Do you work at your art/craft full time or do you have another job?
I currently have three jobs, one keeping my Etsy store and having galleries shows, second: full-time Mom and third family therapist. Not the kind of therapist with an office but the one that gets lots of phone calls from relatives asking for emotional support.

✿ What has been your most memorable moment selling your art?
Once when I got commissioned for creating an artwork for some European President. When I got the check I didn't want to cash it because I wanted to frame it, but I ended up cashing it because I needed to buy some groceries, I was then living in Havana.

✿ What are your current obsessions?
Trying not to obsess about anything :)




✿ Any advice for fellow artists...
Don't listen to any advice because that will distract you, just listen more to your inner voice. I think that if you deeply love what you do and if you're willing to share it with everyone out there, then whatever you give is going to come back to you in the form of little hearts.

✿ If you could be any character, who would it be and why?
I would like to be a Moto-Moto fairy, I don't know what that is by my daughter drew one the other day and I really liked it.

✿ Do you think you lived in a past life? If so, where & when?
I would need to ask my friend Tam, she is a palm reader in her spare time.

✿ What are your future business plans?
My plans are to keep going doing everything with lots of heart.

✿ Anything else you'd like to add about yourself or your work, etc….
That it makes me happy when my work makes other people happy :)

✿ Anyone you'd like to mention as a favourite Etsy seller?
My friend Margie, she is terrific. I am going to meet her in person in May. I will fly to Canada in order to meet with her. Yay!!! Her Etsy store is called knitalatte. Behind this store there is an extraordinary woman...I have seen her imagination and creativity explode thanks to the energy that she has gotten from the Etsy community. This energy is all over the Internet, making all of the creative people a strong and important force.

✿ Shoppe: Elsita
✿ Blog: www.elsita.typepad.com
✿ PaperCutting Blog

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This give-a-way is now closed...Congratulations to BRENDA who won the paper cut print by Elsita!

This week's delicious give-a-way is an 8.5"x 11" black and white print of an original paper cut done by Elsita entitled "Secret Anatomy of a Young Girl".
This print is so beautiful in person as the black ink is very concentrated on the paper, which has a nice textured surface. It look almost like velvet. The 285 gm paper used for this print is acid-free and is of an archival professional grade.



✿ To enter...Visit Elsita's shop. Then, come back here to tell us what you favourite item is and why it's your favourite.

✿ For extra entries into this contest...
1} Get ONE extra entry by following my blog.

2.} Get TWO extra entries by posting a comment on any other post on my blog, not including artist features.

3.} Get TEN extra entries by doing a mini write up about this blog and contest on your blog. Post here with link to the feature.

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Most Important Details... I will make sure all extra entries are entered into the give-a-way. All entries are handwritten by me, so I DO check every single entry and comment. The winner's name is drawn randomly by hand. If your favourite piece of item by Elsita is not part of your comment and some sort of viable contact information is not included, your entry will be disqualified. Give-a-way is shipped out via the artist. All entries must be received by 3pm on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 PST. There is a clock on the right side of this blog so that you may check Los Angeles {PST} time. This contest is open to everyone, everywhere.

Best of luck to you, my Pretties!