"I truly believe that the human mind has no boundaries, and that our imagination can take us as far as the end of the world, if such a place exists. My goal is to make people think beyond the ordinary, and at the same time really see the beauty that surrounds them in the every day world."

This is the maxim of Eleni Cane. A native of Greece that arrived in the United Sates at the age of 18 with a deep desire to conquer her new world, as well as explore all the artistic possibilities that she possessed. Her canvas was The School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she studied for her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree, and graduated with Honors in the spring of 1992.

Her inspiration became the great City itself. New York, full of grand museums such as the Met, MOMA, and the Guggenheim Museum to name a few, was a never-ending display of some the greatest works of art the world has ever known. Eleni recalls, ‘In my second year of college, I witnessed one of the most inspiring exhibitions ever put together; the Picasso exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had goose bumps the entire day!"

After seeing how diverse and absolutely fearless Picasso was in using each conceivable medium and transforming it into a piece of art, she decided to try every medium available until she was absolutely sure that her artistic spirit was fulfilled. After working in oils, acrylics, watercolors, collage, glass paint, computer art, mixed media and even clay and fabric, she decided that her medium of choice was to be pastels.

Pastels, while not a very well known medium, have only recently started receiving recognition for their wonderful qualities, and uniqueness of color. Eleni explains, "The easiest way to describe pastels is that it is the dry form of oil colors, and not chalks as most people seem to think. What first attracted me to this medium was its diversity of color, and the pliability of it. Since it never dries, you have an endless array of possibilities to keep changing the final outcome. More importantly, the brilliant colors never fade or change with time, unlike most other mediums."

After receiving several scholarships, and a commissioned work for a book cover from Double Day Publishing within her third year of college, Eleni started working as a commercial artist, challenging herself with projects such as CD covers, book jackets, corporate annual reports, and complete line of greeting cards. But as the years went by, she felt the need to explore more personal issues. As she says, "My Greek roots took over, and the love that I had as a child for Greece's sun, and the way it transforms everything with its touch naturally started to come out in my paintings."

Eleni's other passion is travel, and after traveling extensively throughout Europe and beyond, she discovered that the work she enjoyed the most, was the one portraying scenes that captured the true identity of the places she had visited, but with a twist....Eleni says, "Even though I don't like to categorize my work as part of any specific art movement, and I like to think of it as unique, I was truly inspired by artists such as Picasso, Dali, Rene Magritte, Max Ernest, and so many others that were able to create a dissimilar reality. I call my work ‘Magic Realism’, because it captures the true splendor of the place that I am portraying, but with an inexplicable twist that you wouldn’t expect in real life."

"My aim is to touch people's hearts and minds, and to make them realize how true the words of Albert Einstein were when he said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge".