Elisa Yinh

For personal projects, my favorite mediums to work with are graphite and colored pencil, but I also create original digital art and take photographs when inspiration strikes. I'm always excited to learn to create with new materials and techniques. Oftentimes, the subjects of my artwork show up in my dreams and meditations, and it's a joy to be able to bring them into the physical world.

Stream of consciousness drawing is one of my favorite ways to help process feelings and emotions. It hands the thinking mind a nice cup of tea, and suggests that it might be good to rest, so that the wild and unplanned can shine. Sometimes, drawing with closed eyes is just the thing. Sometimes, it's silence that welcomes expression. Other times, music becomes the catalyst for color choices, textures, shapes, and patterns to emerge, often to the utter bewilderment of the person making them. It doesn't have to be pretty...it just has to be. “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” ~Georgia O'Keeffe

As a Creative Content Designer at Health Literacy Media (HLM), I design, animate, and produce videos, design eLearnings, do voiceovers, and design one pagers, fact sheets, and social media graphics to help bring together evidence-based information, clear language, and creative design, in a way that educates and empowers.

I graduated in 2001 from Western Michigan University with a BA in music (vocal - classical and jazz) and a minor in art. Growing up, I was involved in musical and stage productions ranging from show choir and concert/marching band, to starring as Wendy Darling in Peter Pan at the Kettering Children's Theater, and Marian Paroo in The Music Man at Kettering Fairmont.

From July of 2018 - June of 2020, I created and maintained a vocabulary word YouTube channel called "The Good, The Bad and The Wordy". My aim was to help people learn vocabulary words in a concise, entertaining and positive way by utilizing my silly facial expressions, vocal music background, and my ability to do accents and character voice impressions.

A quote that inspires me is the final line from Mary Oliver's poem The Summer Day: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"