“I find the world to be magical and inspiring despite all the challenges humanity has created for itself,” says Santa Fe-based artist Carson Elliott. “I am motivated by that inner light within us all and the light  that permeates the spaces we exist in–that’s what I am attempting to capture in my images.” His work—depicting scenes and fantasies of the Southwest—is haunting in its luminous intricacy, exploring themes of time, distance, solitude, sexuality, memory and nature.  Elliott’s reverence for place was already informing his artistic practice when he was still working in the dairy cooler at a Whole Foods. Back then, he kept a small sketchbook and a handful of colored markers in his apron pocket and would stand between pillars of milk containers in cardboard boxes and steal a few minutes to make hasty sketches. “I would draw places I would  rather be in that moment,” Elliott says, most of which were outdoors in the Southwest—camping scenes, blurred yucca on the side of a road, distant mountains with billowing clouds, scenes from a car window, a motorcycle ride and even “drone perspectives” and “bird’s-eye views.”

Later, he would experiment with painting before realizing he couldn’t achieve the level of detail he wanted with a paintbrush and began to make detailed ink drawings on paper. He would then overlay transparent, translucent and sometimes opaque layers of acrylic glazes over the ink drawings. “I was attracted to the effect of how the light refracted through the layers of acrylic and how that ink drawing was able to show through the layers of acrylic,” Elliott says. In recent years, Elliott has been working with ink and acrylic on clayboard, a working surface he prizes for its versatility. “I feel that I have just begun to explore the possibilities of my techniques,” he says. His current body of work showcases one and two point perspective drawing techniques that achieve optical effects through tightly-placed ink lines, over which Elliott layers acrylic glazes to create a luminous, pulsating image both dreamlike and mysterious. “I would say the media and techniques used in this show are a culmination of my lifetime of experimenting playfully and trying new techniques and most importantly, never giving up on my artistic dreams,” Elliott says.

The work in his upcoming show at Hecho a Mano draws on Elliott’s memories and fantasies of his own journeys, inspired by road trips, long bicycle rides, snowboarding, skateboarding, and even the psychic journeys of reading books and listening to music. Elliott still carries a small sketchbook with him wherever he goes, capturing these visions and developing those that have “a certain unnamable quality” into larger works.

“I am not seeking perfection, and I embrace anomalies that occur during the process,” he says. “Not knowing exactly what is going to transpire is part of the excitement of making artwork. The process of making these works  is time-consuming and laborious, yet meditative and, at times, even ecstatic.”

He describes the lines of his work as meditative, each line taking a breath or two. “The rows and rows of lines in my work make me think back on my time working as a snow-cat driver in Crested Butte, growing up in the many square miles of cotton fields, mesquite trees and pump jacks where I spent my formative years in West Texas, and the mindful practice and aesthetic of a Zen garden,” Elliott says. “To make these works is a spiritual journey.” Psychic Migrations will open at Hecho a Mano on Friday, February 7 and will be on view until March 3.