Elexis DeLuca » Ohio Artist Registry

I create contemporary mandala paintings that explore the relationship between color, light, geometry, and visual perception. Built through thousands of individually hand-painted acrylic dots, my work invites viewers to slow down, look closely, and experience the subtle optical shifts that emerge through layered pattern, rhythm, and color.

Drawing from both the symbolic tradition of the mandala and contemporary explorations of perception, my work investigates how light transforms a surface, how color creates movement and depth, and how a composition continually reveals new relationships the longer it is viewed. Rather than presenting a single focal point, each painting encourages exploration, rewarding curiosity with details that often go unnoticed at first glance.

My interest in mandalas extends beyond their geometry. As I learned more about their history across cultures—and Carl Jung’s writings on mandalas as symbolic expressions of the inner self—I found a visual language that resonated deeply with my own creative process. The mandala allows me to be completely honest while protecting my vulnerability. Its structure provides enough order to hold deeply personal ideas while remaining open enough for viewers to bring their own experiences and interpretations to the work.

Painting has become a practice of sustained attention. As the repetition of thousands of individual dots quiets the constant movement of thought, patterns often emerge that I do not consciously plan. Only after a painting is complete do I begin to recognize the ideas, emotions, and questions that found their way into the work. Again and again, I have been struck by how closely these finished pieces reflect what I was experiencing internally, even when I was not consciously aware of it during the painting process. In that sense, each completed mandala reveals as much to me as it does to the viewer.

My studio practice extends beyond the original painting through a hybrid fine art process that includes professional photography, digital development, archival printmaking, and hand-embellished mixed-media editions. Rather than treating these processes as reproduction, I see them as an opportunity to extend the life of a painting—allowing a single work to evolve into new forms while preserving the integrity and experience of the original.

Whether encountered as an original painting or through one of its evolving mixed-media forms, my hope is that each piece invites moments of quiet attention, curiosity, and discovery. I want viewers to return to the work again and again, finding new interactions of light, color, and pattern with every experience.