7:00 PM
Westlake Hills
33°F and Frosty
Playlist: Gradients on Spotify
“It’s honestly a bit of my own therapy to just be by myself on my bike—no music or distractions. Really allowing everything around me to pass through my mind, but also going through cycles of thinking about my life and this reverberation between the two ways of thinking.”
Planes, drones, and UFOs strobe across marbled blue altitudes. Coral-streaked vapor trails glow above a fading canopy of telephone wires and dead branches, forming a kind of aerial latticework. Below, the soft clicking of spokes echoes as a solitary bike drifts in and out of streetlights on the vacant road.
A rider passes homes brimming with warmth, their kinship framed in windows, enlivening an otherwise muted scene. In his wake, iridescent orbs begin to apparate around the unassuming neighborhood. Glints of dying light above cascade into shifting auroras, saturating the canvas with color. As the last rays withdraw, the space suddenly transforms into something otherworldly…
Paradigm Rift
In a burgeoning era of art in cyberspace, it’s impossible to give every creator the likes and reposts they deserve. A consumer-driven algorithm trills indifferently, pumping an unending stream of content into our feeds.
Despite the dissonance, Eli McMullen emerges with work that feels entirely new—while knowing the feeling all too well.
A classical painter by trade, McMullen suffuses imagery from the physical world into an ethereal landscape through abstract Impressionism. The uncanny blend of elements is nothing short of scroll-stopping.
“It’s just kind of reproducing what I see in my environments—taking elements of the architecture, the light, and the feeling, but remixing it into something purely from my imagination. It’s like an abstract shuffle of the elements,” McMullen explains while examining some of his previous works.
Heavy darkness anchors the visual field, giving way to flecks of vibrant color and intricate linework. Upon closer inspection, trees, streams, and leaves emerge, forming the natural foundation of his work. Overlaid with a diaphanous symphony of polychromatic aberrations, the result evokes the ultra-rare aesthetic of a holographic trading card.
McMullen’s proficiency has landed him in a multitude of spaces, from galleries across the country to a 2022 feature in the RVA Street Art Festival—and, most recently, an exhibition at Miami’s Art Basel.
Destination Unknown
“It is such a menial, mundane little thing—to have someone actually take a second to investigate that, to consider how it makes them feel. And not only that, but to potentially see other things through a bit of that same light, shaped by their experience of your perception.”
Emerging from the woodland’s edge, Eli set his sights on the awe-inspiring splendor of… suburban real estate developments. I know, I know. Stay with me on this.
McMullen has spent his evenings trawling the neighborhoods of Richmond in search of almighty inspiration. “I’m usually on my bike, wandering around, almost trying to get lost. I’m like, ‘Where does this go?’ Following this intuitive kind of motion. Most of the things I capture are taken super quickly on my crappy old smartphone.”
Sitting down in Eli’s studio, we delved deeper into the process.
“I honestly spend more time exploring my environments than I do painting them because it takes so many hours of discovery—trying to find something, catching whatever random light sources are happening in that moment, which is constantly fleeting.”
Even though his subject matter has changed, Eli still relies on forming an organic connection with his surroundings.
“I’m allowing it to find me more—that’s the ultimate goal. I’m not forcing myself to go out and capture just anything; I’m taking the time to let those moments reveal themselves rather than trying to rediscover them.”
Rapture via Rhapsody
There’s been a palpable shift in Eli McMullen’s work—an evolution from abstract naturalism to something that feels like a Stranger Things-esque lens on our neighborhoods, as seen from the Upside Down. Consuming darkness has become a steady fixture in his most recent series.
“I find I like more existential moments at nighttime, and I think it’s interesting—especially because so many of these places were captured at a time when there isn’t as much life present in the neighborhood. Time seems to be suspended.”
McMullen leans more into the use of negative space in these works. At first, that may seem counterintuitive to his purpose, but once again, the artist sheds light from a different angle.
“I enjoy painting the human experience without necessarily representing the human form directly,” McMullen explains. “I love the infinite interactions I can play around with in that world—kind of like the imprint or presence of humans without actually painting figures.”
His connection to the spaces he paints goes beyond observation. In a rare act of artistic reciprocity, he has surprised a few homeowners with an unexpected gift.
“I’ve actually taken a couple of prints—I’ve only done this twice—but I printed a painting, knocked on the door of the house, and said, ‘This is your house. It inspired me. It’s really cool. Just as a thank you, here’s a print of it.’ I had no idea if they’d be freaked out or what, but they were so happy and stoked about it.”
Merging Worlds
Dabbing red acrylic paint from his brush, Eli McMullen reflected on his headspace while working on his next piece.
“I think there’s a realm of art that’s more described as visionary art—where it’s usually infused with a kind of psychedelic energy.”
By setting aside strict realism and immersing himself in imagination, he explores new ways to build entire worlds from within.
“When I put down the realism of everyday surroundings and instead dive deeper into my mind—figuring out how I can build my own worlds, fusing imagination with inspiration—I think that’s where, you could say, there’s more magic in that way of thinking.”
While he spends his waking hours gathering the necessary elements for his work, other components are drawn from another realm entirely.
“Spaces I’ve experienced in my dreams—I feel like they come into play.”
“It’s almost like I’m living another life,” he continues. “But it’s so hard to remember everything. There are always these hazy little snapshots of what happened. But it’s literally a whole other day’s worth of experience that I have in these dreams.”
Eli has spent time reflecting on this phenomenon. To him, art emerges from the fusion of lived experience and the subconscious resonance we carry with it.
“I guess a lot of it is grounded in a form of daydreaming—allowing your mind to wander until the imagery just appears, building itself inside a kind of physical space in your thoughts. Sometimes it’s a slow transition, and sometimes it’s a flash of an image that just pops into your mind. I feel like those moments can be inspired by all kinds of emotions.”
Painting the Price
Even someone who sails across the space-time continuum like Eli McMullen is still grounded by the realities of the modern art world.
“You know what’s hard about doing the gallery shit? The next three months are devoted to making the show. I’m not really going to be making any money during that time. So it’s like banking on the fact that I’ll sell work in that show to make up for it.”
There’s a constant push and pull between creative ambition and economic necessity.
“My goal is just to use my creativity to make a living—whether that means doing the work I truly want to do or making art that meets the needs of my market in a way that commercializes it. That’s definitely two worlds I’ve been balancing to make ends meet.”
What McMullen describes is a creative struggle that stymies even the most talented artists.
“It’s crossed my mind—maybe I’m not making the truest work to my inner self right now. It’s really hard to remove that pressure while knowing, deep down, whether you’re truly speaking from your inner voice.”
The past few years have forced Eli to confront these challenges head-on.
“I’ve had to learn a lot from my mistakes. And yeah, it’s weird at times—it can definitely feel like a lonely pursuit, like, ‘You have to figure this out for yourself.’ Sometimes it feels like no one cares, no one has insight, no one has empathy for what you’re struggling with.”
But even as he voiced this frustration, he seemed to challenge himself in real time.
“I’m learning that’s not true—the more I try to be honest with other creators and not pretend I have it all figured out. I know that means balancing it with more commercialized work, mural work, and stuff that pays way more than what the gallery world is offering right now.”
Eli reflected on these realizations and the humility they’ve instilled.
“I think the ultimate goal is to make enough to survive—and to be able to pursue the work that truly matters. Just making art for art’s sake.”
Twilight Renaissance
Dreams are where the mind and soul connect—quantum bonds forming an aura. For Eli McMullen, those filaments organize into a prism, refracting his inner light and casting a paradigm reality that phases between fact and fiction.
McMullen’s metacognitive scope amplifies hues of life that often go unnoticed. That boring house on that dull street in that cookie-cutter neighborhood? Seen through another frame, it’s anything but.
“They’re everyday spaces, but they’re also personal spaces. Even though they could be occupied by so many different types of people across so many different timelines, I think it’s cool that I could be capturing this one moment in time.”
Doing all of this under the cover of night might give his work an eerie edge, but the absence of light is merely a precursor to an unseen radiance.
“These places are being illuminated from within. There’s this microcosm of life that exists in these spaces—something you might just fly past. But taking a second to reinvestigate something through the abyss… that’s what feels special.”
“It’s so easy to overlook because it’s so regular, just like, ‘Ah yeah, I’ve seen that a thousand times.’ But to elevate that—to frame it in a way that makes you stop and investigate for just a moment longer… I think that’s been revealed to me as one of my goals.”
If you’d like to traverse more of Eli’s worlds, feel free to enter through this gateway.
End
All images by Mike Avey of Penrose Projex
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