Throughout my 17 years of life, I have developed my talent and deepened my understanding of what art is meant to achieve. My name is Elijah Lynch. I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, where I fell in love with creating at a young age. Partially due to my proclivity to cause messes and my parents redirecting my messes on to disposable pieces of paper. As I grew up, I realized how much I enjoy engaging with human thought through books, art, media, and conversation. Now, I aim to weave narrative into my work—creating pieces that truly have something to say.

Guided by great teachers, I have vastly improved my technical skills; now, my focus is on deepening the message behind my art. As a Senior at Flint Southwestern Classical Academy, the city of Flint serves as a constant backdrop for my photography. While taking photos here is convenient, it is also deeply meaningful, Flint is an incredible and challenging community that I love and want to see thrive.

Growing up here during the water crisis brought national attention to our hometown, with figures like President Obama and Elon Musk visiting my city and school district. To me this was just my normal life. Outsiders often downplay Flint’s beauty without ever experiencing the community firsthand, which has only strengthened my loyalty to the city and given deeper purpose to my backdrop.

On the more technical side, I am always exploring how to make my lines and marks more dynamic. My visual inspirations include Kim Jung Gi, Picasso, Ten Hundred, Martin French, Karl Kopinski, Mike Mignola, and Francis Bacon. I also rely heavily on bright colors because they are eye-catching and evocative compared to muted tones.

Looking ahead, my ambition is to become a professor of historical theology while continuing to make art. I want to create personal, profound pieces that serve as windows into shared human experiences, anchors,  that help viewers pinpoint a specific emotion or thought. I often find this feeling in literature, such as Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where the monster’s consumed pursuit across the arctic fields illustrates the raw intensity of human emotion. We all can understand this tunnel vision rage and the depiction laying out my Shelley at the end of her book is a common anchor that is thought provoking and personally reflective. My greatest hope with my art is to create a similar anchor for the viewer whether it’s a fleshed out example of a common experience or it presents a new spin or thought. I hope to show people that while my art does look appealing and is high quality it also has a narrative behind it. 

Wrapping it up this time, 

Elijah Stone Lynch