Dr E Alana James is "using her art to change the narrative about aging, one person, one portrait at a time".

She re-emerged in her late 60s as a professional visual artist after decades of academic authorship.

She now specialises in embellished digital collage and uses those tools to portray people over 75 years with "bubbles in time" behind them.

Each bubble represents an influence in their lives that make them who they are today, chosen by them to represent their strengths and challenges.

Alana's vision is that these life-sized portraits will help the viewer to question what more can be seen in all the older people they come across.

When did you set up your business and why?

I was trained and started out as a professional artist in my 20s, but life intervened and that creative urge to talk to people through my images went underground.

Then two years ago I decided to close the business that has kept me busy for the last decade because I wanted more out of life.

For all those years, I used to tell myself that I would come back to my art "at the end of my life", but in truth I never believed it. Now I realise it’s important to follow those dreams, not let them go.

Can you explain your process?

My art always starts with an idea that I want to portray, then I layer on the pictures that may represent that idea. I seek to have the overall meaning point to a deeper truth.

This new portrait series where the subjects will be 75-plus years old allows me to delve into the question of 'what are the secrets to living a great older life?'

Our context, the place we live, the work we do, makes up the background and the person tells me their story and what has influenced how they are today as an older person. Those specifics go in my 'bubbles in time' and surround them in the portraits.

What is your best seller?

In addition to the over-75 portraits that I am producing for shows, I do commissions. People come to me wanting a gift for a family or to celebrate an event or a person at a key portion of their lives.

Winter by E Alana James.

I always try to delve deeper than just a simple portrait to bring out what makes the person unique.

What is it about your business that brings you joy?

I love having a reason to have a substantive conversation with people about their lives, to go through their pictures for the moments in time bubbles and to understand what they feel have made them who they

are. Everyone has such a great story to tell.

What are your hopes for 2023?

The life-sized portraits will be shown for the first time at Ballymaloe Grainstore this summer. I hope lots of people come to see them and that they have an impact on how some people think when they meet older people.

I want to keep on meeting new people and completing work, it’s always a pleasure and the work progresses.

I would love to do a portrait (or more than one) of Irish farmers. I would hope to tease out the connection to the land, which is an intricate part of how it is to be a farmer who is 75-plus years old.

Considering Shonibare by E Alana James.

There is no cost to do a portrait and only a minimal charge for the printing and embellishment should someone want a copy of the result. For more information, please contact alana@ealanajames.com.

What advice would you give to another start-up business?

I have two answers here. My suggestion for anyone interested in an arts or crafts business is to get help understanding the marketplace, the opportunities and deciding what works for you personally in the space where art and business meet.

As an example, with the aging project, my goal is to find venues where many of these portraits can be shown, because with volume the viewer has a deeper experience, so that propels me to meet curators, and to search out global opportunities more than if my focus was on producing and selling the work.

Commissions allow me a comfortable middle ground, as I produce work for larger venues.

For any business, a secret is to really listen to your potential customers. In times past, I spent too much time and money progressing down roads I thought people needed rather than listening to them.

That slowed down the process and the success of the business. I hope to avoid that mistake this time.

Visit https://ealanajames.com/.