The Red and Black

Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: Variety

Media Credit: TYLER GOFORTH Elliott Earls explains aspects of his performance art at the Student Learning Center Tuesday. [Click to enlarge]

Elliott Earls has dabbled in nearly every artistic medium imaginable, including graphics, music, film and sculpture.

This week, he's bringing his works to Athens, hosting lectures and film screenings, conducting a workshop and opening an art exhibition.

"I told him what a great music town Athens is, so come spend a week here," said Mark Callahan, associate director of Ideas for Creative Exploration, a project-based program involving students, faculty and the community.

Callahan first heard of Earls at Cranbrook during his graduate study there, and then saw him perform a one-man show in Detroit.

"He was interacting with video, playing characters on the video and using instruments to trigger different stuff," Callahan said. "It was really innovative and really kind of blew my mind."

Earls began art at a camp in Ohio when he was 5 years old. He said he won a contest to make the "strangest hat" and never looked back.

Towards the end of high school, Earls said he explored graphics as a way to make a living in the arts. From there he attended Rochester Institute of Technology in New York to hone his craft.

"Still to this day, I look back on that time very fondly," Earls said. "I studied figure drawing, 2-D, 3-D designs. The basics of form."

Earls has received accolades in his work, including the Emerging Artist Grant from Wooster Group in Manhattan, the chance to perform at the Exit Festival outside of Paris and forming the Apollo Program Studio, the studio aspect of his work.

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