Meet Elaine Adel Cummins | Professional visual artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elaine Adel Cummins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elaine Adel, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Starting my own business was more necessity than choice. I was a single mother with dyslexia so even filling out an application for a job was a no-go. Reading was very difficult for me. Even at the late age of 21. Because I needed to get my daughter to school and pick her up  which did not work with typical job hours, I realized the only way I was going to make it work was by being my own boss. I looked at my skill set and I started building from there. I already had a foundation in art because both of my parents were professional artists. That is the direction I took things but shaping it into a real business was and still is an uphill battle. But it is rewarding.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
In the entrepreneur artist sense, being able to pivot and reinvent yourself along the way is essential because art like any other product requires that you pay attention to market demand while at the same time exercising integrity in creativity. What motivates me and how I express images is with light color and not necessarily illustrating everything correctly. I like to leave a lot open for interpretation so the viewer actually starts explaining the painting to themselves. They engage with the artwork better that way. The vivid colors, the mood I set in my paintings hopefully brings fond memories of happy times in the New Orleans area particularly the French Quarter. When I paint a painting I want people to feel it viscerally, like it feet in there time in New Orleans.

Getting to where I am now was part dumb luck and a lot of determination. Everyday is a work day. There are no days off. I’m always cooking up paintings in my mind even if I’m not at the easel. I’m always looking for new opportunities, inspirations and connections. I’m representing my brand at all times because I’m proud of it. Not bad for an illiterate young lady that I was to reach this far.

My protocol when things get challenging it’s just give it enough time to think about it. Think about it from every conceivable angle. And then stand back and weigh it all out and the solution will appear. Hard times go hand in hand with being a professional artist. It is always feast or famine. If you can cope with the ups and downs economically, decades fly by and you realize you’ve done an entire lifetime of artwork and self support. Poof just like that!

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is don’t be afraid to try even when it seems insurmountable. I’ve had a lot of obstacles in my life and little by little if I pay close attention I’m able to work around to where I finally overcome them.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I had a friend that’s never been to New Orleans before we would start with the jazz brunch at Court of Two Sisters followed by the Dukes of Dixieland Jazz Band on Bourbon Street. We then head up to the river and look at the Mississippi River from the moonwalk while eating Beignets from Cafe Du Monde. Next day Napoleon House for the roast beef Po Boys… oh my. After that a good City Tour driving around and showing all the stuff that the tourists don’t see. Day by day there are too many restaurants to list but some of the key food items are seafood pasta Coop’s Place is of my favorites. Who does without a muffuletta from Central Grocery. It’s deliciously yummy! And if the budget allows there’s nothing like Antoine’s Restaurant. Music wise checking the calendar for any local events that include music is always the first pick. If nothing’s going on we’ve always got Frenchman Street, Bourbon Street and the Uptown music scene. Attractions are always wonderful and because my artwork is featured at the Four Seasons Hotel attraction on the top of the building called Vue Orleans, I would definitely bring my friend there so she/he could be proud of the paintings I did to represent the New Orleans culture. I was very proud of that project and it really saved me economically during covid. I needed that job. And the truth is as a little girl I dreamed that one day my artwork would be in the building. Long ago the building was called the International trademart. It had art shows on the ground floor that I used to go look at as a little girl. Here it was many decades later and I am an old woman and I got to paint the paintings that are in the top of the building now. Kind of a dream come true. 😀

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I think my biggest influence was New Orleans artist Bob Graham. He does portraits for the New Orleans Saints that hang in the Superdome today. He has been an artist in New Orleans since the seventies and really influenced the style in which I paint by his support and encouragement and mentorship. There have been a lot of mentors in my life because I grew up in the artist Colony at Jackson Square with both parents as artists. But Bob really stands out because I knew I could always rely on him for an explanation of something I could not understand. He always had the answer.

Instagram: https://instagram.com/elaineadelcummins?utm_source=qr&igshid=ZTM4ZDRiNzUwMw==

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elaineacummins?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Image Credits
Photo and painting by Elaine Adel Cummins.