My art is about life through the eyes of a child, an adolescent, a woman. My work is for everyone who has seen a fall from grace. . .who has ever forgotten how to cry, felt the sting of hate, the tear of flesh and the confusion of a wavering faith. . .
Education
2000 Kilgore Junior College Kilgore,Texas Phi Theta Kappa Fall 2001 (Campus Honor Society)
2005 BFA University of Texas at Tyler, Cum Laude Tyler, Texas Alpha Chi
Group Portfolios
2004 Xenophobia student portfolio University of Texas at Tyler Tyler, Texas
Selected Group exhibitions
2009 5x7 Dallas, Texas
2008 Jordan Art Gallery Corsicana, Texas
2007 Art for Education Art Exhibition Las Vegas, Nevada
2007 For Your Eyes Only, Ananse Gallery Houston, Texas
2006 Art for Education Art Exhibition Las Vegas, Nevada
2005 Pinnacle Artists Exhibition Houston, Texas
2005 Art for Education Art Exhibition Las Vegas, Nevada
2004 National Black Fine Art Exhibition New York, New York
2004 Art for Education Art Exhibition Las Vegas, Nevada
2003 National Black Fine Art Exhibition New York, New York
2003 National Medical Association Art Exhibition Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2002 National Black Fine Art Exhibition New York, New York
2002 The Links Art Exhibition Chicago, Illinois
2002 Visions of color: Emerging Artists Houston, Texas
Juried Exhibitions
2005 Juried Student Exhibition University of Texas at Tyler Tyler, Texas
2004 Juried Student Exhibition University of Texas at Tyler Tyler, Texas
2002 Junior College Symposium University of Texas at Tyler Tyler, Texas
2000 Future Masters Art Competition Longview Museum of Fine Art Longview, Texas
Awards and Honors
2005 Presidents Honor Roll University of Texas at Tyler Tyler Texas
2004 Dean’s list University of Texas at Tyler Tyler, Texas
2003 Presidential Scholarship University of Texas at Tyler Tyler, Texas
2002 Junior College Symposium $500 talent scholarship University of Texas at
Tyler Tyler, Texas
2000 Future Masters High School Art Competition: 1st Place-drawing Longview, Texas
2000 $2400 Dean’s Art Scholarship Kilgore Junior College Kilgore, Texas
2000 Award for Excellence in Art Longview High School Longview, Texas
News and Publications
Fox 26 KRIV Artist of the Week Jan 30-Feb3
I was born in Longview, Texas 1982. I am the youngest of two children, both being girls. Drawing has always been a part of my life. I got my first art set before I even started kindergarten. I used to draw and write on the walls and my parents blamed my older sister because they did not even think I could write so they really didn't believe I could draw.
At the age of six, my family moved to El Dorado, Arkansas. Many of the experiences while growing up in Arkansas-both good and bad- helped to not only shape my beliefs personally, but they fueled me creatively as well.
I returned to Longview, Texas at the age of fourteen to finish high school. There began my pattern of butting heads with every art teacher and art professional Ithat I came across. After a two-year stint at Junior College, I transferred to a university where I received my BFA in the winter of 2005.
As an art student in high school and college, I always found myself in a peculiar spot. I wasn't big on "assignments". Honestly, I was terrible. After three years of College I can count on one hand the number of assignments I actually completed. My style wasn’t conservative and traditional enough for realists and illustrators and it was not weird enough for many of my peers that chose to channel the palettes of the abstract expressionists.
My greatest influences are my father-an artist himself, and Kathe Kollwitz. My favorite Artist is Edgar Degas, but I have no desire to paint like him. I am not conservative nor a traditionalist, or modernist. I make art as I do most things-my way. I use pure black and large planes of white. I do not shade colors with their complements. I threw out all of the technical things I learned in High School and Junior College, deciding I would much rather make art by instinct than by method.
As an artist I am always asked: “What makes you paint?” or “What makes you an Artist?” I would counter that with: “What makes you get up in the morning? What makes you take every breath you take? That is the very same thing that makes me paint”. It is a calling, a compulsion. Art is something I have to do. My biggest personal inspiration is my Grandmother, Margaret Wilson. She was perhaps the love of my life and she taught me more about people in her passing than anyone alive has ever done. I am moved by the vices and virtues of people, motivated by experience, and fueled by my passion for it all. I really feel that as I grow and evolve as a person that my work does also.
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elise6202000_yahoo.com
Longview, Texas
75608
tel: 903-576-1000
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