Meet Elija Kane | Everyday Artist and Wish Granter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elija Kane and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elija, what inspires you?
A little bit of everything. While I often find myself going through different phases of inspiration and exploration, my art always makes its way back to the human body. Our bodies are magical vessels of creativity, ingenuity, pain, pleasure, and wonder. I’m fascinated by the way our bodies move and take up space. The vast array of different shapes, sizes, colors, textures and layers are incredibly beautiful and complex. I’m inspired by the honesty of our bodies..

My art reflects what’s going on in the world around me, in my life, my brain, and my heart at any given time, which takes me down so many different avenues. I’m often inspired and drawn in to new ideas from other forms of art; books, music, and movies, as well as my love for the great outdoors and animals.

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.
I am incredibly fortunate to get to tell people when they ask me what I do for a living, that “I grant wishes.” This wasn’t always the case, and the journey to get there felt like it took some time.

At 17, I thought I had the next few years of my life planned out and I was eager to begin them. I had been accepted to one of the top Fashion schools in the US and was slated to head out upon graduating high school. But after an unexpected and traumatic family event, I was forced to reconsider my options and ask myself what I felt really mattered in life. Self expression, especially through wardrobe is important, and I stand by that, but I realized during this time, that designing fast fashion wouldn’t bring me joy and certainly wouldn’t help make the world a better place. I had to reconsider my whole plan.

So I went to community college and bounced around between different courses, trying to see if any of them called to me. I dabbled with the thought of becoming an educator and even spent a semester in a local school, student teaching, before I realized it wasn’t for me. The one constant was my art both in and outside of school. It was during this time that I learned to paint and planned my first solo art show. Upon receiving my Associates Degree I decided to take a gap year. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. I began volunteering to teach art classes and raise funds for the art supplies in partnership with local nonprofits. Art had helped me and I thought access to it might help others. I called my little project “Art For All” and introduced it to a women’s transitional housing facility as well as an African immigrant youth center. When I wasn’t working or volunteering, I took some downtime to visit Ireland and backpack Vietnam, traveling the world in search of some guidance.

I credit my career to a personality test. That’s right. I took a personality test and it told me I should work in nonprofit. It suddenly made sense but not anything I had ever seriously considered, which sounds funny now. The next day I registered at the Metropolitan State University of Denver and spent the next 2 years majoring in Human Services with a concentration in nonprofit management. As part of the graduation requirements students had to intern at a local nonprofit for about 8 months. If you know anything about nonprofits you know they generally can’t afford to pay their interns much. This experience taught me to hustle. I would attend class full time, intern 30 hours a week, and work 2 jobs on the weekends in order to finish school. While I would never want to be in that situation again, it certainly taught me about hard work and chasing after your goals. I believe it made me incredibly driven.

I ended up interning at Wish of a Lifetime from AARP, a national nonprofit that grants life changing wishes to adults 65 years and older. After falling in love with the mission and the work I was lucky enough to be offered a full-time position upon graduating. I’ve been there ever since. I had set out to find a career that would be meaningful to me, and now I get to support older adults in aging with hope and joy.

I get to be creative in the workplace, and when I’m not working, my job provides me the stability and flexibility to pursue my art passions and other hobbies.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Denver and Colorado at large is such an exciting place to be! There are new restaurants and activities popping up all the time. My two favorite out of town visitors are from Minneapolis and Portland, so when they visit I always try to incorporate a mix of mountain adventure with time in the city.

I would start by taking them on one of my favorite wildflower hikes in Breckenridge and afterwards enjoying Piante Pizza- an all vegan pizza joint that makes their cheese and meat in house.

Once back in the city we would try some of my other favorite Denver vegan spots to eat- Sputnik on Broadway, Wellness Sushi on Colfax, and Watercourse on 17th. On our way back to the foothills, we would stop at the Edgewater Market near Sloans Lake for dessert and a quick look in one of their many shops.

Growing up in Golden, the town still has as special place in my heart- so stopping at my favorite consignment shop- Rewind, on mainsheet, and a brunch at Cafe 13 would definitely make the list.

On my guests last day, I would take them to Olde Town Arvada to check out Electric Cherry, a female owned business-vinyl, meets vintage clothing, meets local art. Followed by.a tour of the 40 West Art Hub and galleries.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I was an odd kid growing up. I was never popular. I wore baggy basketball shorts, and kept my hair short, and I got made fun of a good amount by my peers in school. I guess you could say I marched to the beat of my own drum. And my parents never once tried to persuade me otherwise. In fact they always encouraged me to do anything and everything I wanted to.

Having both grown up in strict religious households, my parents never prescribed any single belief or way of thinking on to us. They introduced us to the world and let us forge our own paths from there.

They exposed me to an array of music from Enya to Metallica to the country classics. They cheered me on at every play, choir performance, and orchestra recital. They bought me my first sewing machine and kept the first drawing I ever made (which is just a crayon scribble on construction paper), but they let me choose who I wanted to be and what I wanted to explore. And today, they are the first I tell about upcoming art shows and pop ups.

I firmly believe that the environment they created led me to become the artists and person I am now.

This ones for you Mom and Dad.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elijakane.art/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elija-montepare-valdez-8a9126134/