ABOUT

Elana Bloom is a natural dyer and visual artist working in Tucson, Arizona. Her main body of work comprises surreal cut paper collages composed of naturally dyed paper that explore women’s relationship to taking up space, the psychology of self, and the optimism of land. A wanderer and forager, she enjoys gathering her own dye materials and brews vibrant dyes with the natural resources she finds in the urban neighborhood around her studio.

Born in Berkeley, California, Elana grew up in the Puget Sound region of Washington State and the high-desert mountains of Northern Arizona. She pursued natural dyeing as a medium in 2019, provoked by her move back to Arizona. In 2022 she began to build her intricate collages from her naturally dyed papers and textiles. Her work is in private collections in the United States, Europe, and Asia. 

Elana graduated from Smith College with a BA in women and gender studies, emphasizing women’s history and literature. Her studies in gender, as well as in English literature, women’s history, and social theory inspire many of the themes explored in her work. She loves stories, interiors, dreams, travel, fashion, mythology, design, times past, and the natural world. One can often find her convening with cats, plants, beetles, ants, and other creatures she encounters in her desert home. She will never say no to a history podcast.