Elise Aleman
“Show me the right path, O Lord;
point out the road for me to follow.
Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me.
All day long I put my hope in you...”
— Psalm 25.4-5
Cuban-born and U.S.–raised, Elise Aleman (b. 1960) is an artist living and working in Savannah, Georgia. Her work is shaped by a lifelong journey between cultures, a pivotal career change, and a continual search for spiritual meaning, where faith, memory, and migration powerfully intertwine.
A Summa Cum Laude graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design (BFA, 2021) and Georgia Southern University (MFA, 2025), Elise is a renaissance talent who fearlessly navigates the realms of painting, printmaking, installation, and mixed media. She builds layered surfaces and immersive environments using diverse materials, including oil, acrylics, encaustic wax, cyanotype, gold leaf, and projection, blurring the boundaries between the tactile and the transcendent.
After a successful 30-year career in graphic design, Elise courageously returned to fine art to reclaim her identity as a painter and to share her faith. Unapologetically a Christian artist, she wields her creative prowess to breathe visual life into biblical themes and beliefs. Rooted in theological truth yet shaped by exile and renewal, her work merges scripture and personal history to reveal light within loss and hope within transformation. Her graduate thesis exhibition, Theopoetics Prothesis, was an experiential dialogue that transformed scripture and personal history into an immersive work of image, sound, and revelation.
Elise Aleman's art is a testament to resilience, faith, and the enduring power of creativity. Her creations aim to spark introspection and provoke a transcendental experience, inviting viewers to embark on a journey of self-discovery.
Read the full thesis: Theopoetics Prothesis here