I live my life in growing orbits
which move out over the things of the world
Perhaps I can never achieve the last
But that will be my attempt.
I am moving around God,
Around the ancient tower,
And I have been circling for a thousand years.
And I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

 The uniquely mysterious essence of El Dieckvoss' personal and artistic journey becomes an unavoidable reality to those who encounter her art. (The power and purity of those qualities prompted a fellow artist to leave the words of Rilke attached to one of El's paintings.)

Her work is distinctly autobiographic. It portrays the spirit of journeys through a multitude of cultures, mythologies and philosophies. It illuminates the ordinarily unseen (phantoms, guardians, icons and omens); and records her encounters with the enigmas, revelations and rewards deeply woven into life's fabric.

In the 1960s, El Dieckvoss left her childhood home in Germany, crossing many borders, exploring the traditions and ways of many peoples. In 1981, she settled in Hawai'i, where she now lives and works. In her travels she has studied with such noted artist/teachers as Heidi Pulley-Boyes, Nathan Oliveira, Squeak Carnwath, and Wolf Kahn.

Over a span of twenty five years, El has amassed an impressive body of work, and has apportioned it into collections depicting major episodes and occurrences in her life. The "Occurrences" found in this website represent three of those groupings.

"It seems the genes are impossible to ignore." She says. "In 1903, armed with his father's sketchbook from 1871, my grandfather left his profession as a teacher to pursue an artistic hunger he could no longer ignore. Journeying from North Germany to Paris, supported by Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, who encouraged his talent, my grandfather ultimately became a highly recognized landscape-portrait painter. As his father's were to him, my grandfather's sketch books are a precious inspiration to me.

"Ironically, I was discouraged from pursuing an art-related profession in the economically burdened post-World War II Germany. As an adult, though, I have enjoyed the freedom to pursue my art as a personal refuge. Early studies encouraged me to explore my most intimate feelings, to develop my own eye, to see and express things in my own way...to bring forth my own vision. That quest has not changed."

Are El Dieckvoss' works simply notations made along the road ­ or might they be the road itself?

Please visit her paintings and judge for yourself.