Klara Elek was born in Budapest Hungary. After the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, with her family, she escaped to Austria, and in 1957 emigrated to Canada, settling in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1966 she obtained her teacher’s certificate and taught all public school subjects, including English and Art in higher grades. In 1968 she attended the University of Winnipeg General Arts program and in 1972 received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, with a major in painting at the University of Manitoba.

In 1976, she relocated to Toronto, Ontario. From 1982 to 1993 Klara traveled extensively throughout South America, South East Asia, and parts of Europe, visiting such exotic locales as Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Bali, Costa Rica, and Venezuela, with a European stint back to Budapest and Vienna. As a result of these visually and spiritually stimulating travels, her imagination began to become filled with the dream-like, mythical images that were to become her signature in later works.

The poem “Creation”, which she channeled while creating the “Tree of Knowledge” pencil drawing in 2020 contains ideas she had tried to convey through her visual myths.

Creation

Dissolution
Integration
Transmutation
Continuous Creation.
The Heart…the pulse of the universe
Pumping lifeblood,
Creating life,
Life within the ever changing continuum.
Rivulets of blood
Flow into the earth,
Nourishing nature.
Fingers of bone
Reach into the shadows..
Death,
Healing
Renewal

About the Artist