ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Most recently I have been concentrating on various textile media as my primary means of expression. I feel drawn to these media for artistic as well as cultural reasons. I find the challenges they represent to my artistic vision stimulating and richly rewarding. I feel a sense of connection as I work on my craft to all of the women who have quilted before me creating for me a sort of community in time. I vacillate between traditional quilt-making techniques and the more experimental art-quilt format. The most common theme that has appeared in my pieces has been the image of a sun. Permutations of this celestial theme have been appearing in my works for the last year and range in their representation from realistic to abstract. I see the sun image as a metaphor for many things, especially for my own creative life.

 

BIOGRAPHY

Elizabeth Harris has been working with textiles for many years. Creating textiles from yarn began when she learned how to knit at the tender age of three at her mother's knee. Many knitted items followed, culminating with numerous original designs. In recent years, the Artquilt has become Elizabeth 's medium of choice.

Elizabeth obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a double major: Art and Biology. This dichotomy of interests has continued; she obtained a PhD. in Botany from Louisiana State University while continuing to work with textiles.  Currently, Elizabeth teaches Biology half-time at the University of Central Florida and spends as much time as possible in her studio designing and executing new textile works.

The celestial theme resonates with and inspires Elizabeth . One piece just leads to another and the suns keep coming. Many of her pieces represent some aspect of her inner journey as a thinking being. As such, the spatial idiom represents the increasingly complex inner dimensions with the sun as the central icon representing the self or soul. Botanical images also enter her work. Other subjects appear as well, often as a reaction to an intense experience or as a playful interlude.


ARTIST'S RESUME

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts with a double major: Art and Biology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga , 1985.  Graduated cum laude.
  • Ph. D. in Botany from Louisiana State University in 1991.

Invitational Exhibitions

  • One-person show at Cleveland State Community College , Cleveland , Tennessee . March, 1985.
  • Battleship Arts Invitational, held in the historic Battleship Building during the 2004 City Hop. Columbus , Ohio . June 2004.
  • Year long rotating exhibit. Fibers Gallery Ltd., 15 North Main St. , Mt. Vernon , OH .  October 2005-September 2006.
  • Dreams of Earth and Sky. Two-person show with painter Kim Elliott. Camelot Cellars Gallery, Columbus , OH . March-April 2006.  Show reviewed in the Short North Gazette: Web Link

Juried Exhibitions

  • Cultural Art Center , Columbus , Ohio .  Sponsored by the Mid-Ohio Chapter Knitter’s Guild for the national “Knit-Out and Crochet, Too” event.  September 2000.
  • The Columbus Metropolitan Library Exhibit, Columbus , Ohio . Sponsored by the Mid-Ohio Chapter Knitter’s Guild.  November 2001.
  • Knitted textile exhibit at the High Road Gallery in Worthington , Ohio . Sponsored by the Mid-Ohio Chapter Knitter’s Guild, September 2002.
  • “Threads of our Community”. Sponsored by The Women’s Center of Jacksonville Art & Soul. Jacksonville , FL. January 13 through March 22, 2005.
  • "Fish Follies", Cordova Historical Society Museum , Cordova AK . July-August. 2006. 99574
  • "2006 National Small Art Quilt Works", The Main Street Gallery, 105 Main Street , Groton NY . 13073. July 28 through September 3, 2006.
  • "Quilts = Art = Quilts". Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center , 205 Genesee Street , Auburn , NY 13021 , November 3, 2006 through January 15, 2007.

Other Exhibitions

  • Spring Art Festival. Sponsored by the Cleveland Creative Arts Guild, Cleveland , Tennessee . Awards: First, Third; both for Batik textile entitled: Nocturnal Flight.  April, 1976.
  • Bicentennial Celebration. Sponsored by the Cleveland Creative Arts Guild, Cleveland , Tennessee . Award: Second place in graphics.  June, 1976.
  • Spring Art Festival. Sponsored by the Cleveland Creative Arts Guild, Cleveland , Tennessee . Awards: Best in Show for oil entitled: The Dancer.  Second place in graphics.  April, 1977.
  • Fall invitational outdoor show. Sponsored by the Tennessee Artists’ Association, Cleveland Chapter, Cleveland , Tennessee . Award: First for colored pencil entitled: Bulbophyllum makoyanum.  August, 1983.
  • Eleventh Annual Staff Arts and Crafts Exhibit at the Ohio State University , Columbus , Ohio . September through October,  2002.
  • Twelfth Annual Staff Arts and Crafts Exhibit at the Ohio State University , Columbus , Ohio .  Award:  Personal Favorite of Vice-President William J. Shkurti.for the artquilt entitled: Internal Universe, September through October, 2003.
  • SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) SunWorks Competition. Award: First Place for August in the Adult category for the artquilt entitled: The Transit of Venus. August, 2005; Award: Second Place for January 2006 in the Adult category for the artquilt entitled: The Seven Suns; Award: Second Place for February 2006 in the Adult category for the artquilt entitled: Black Sun of Medea. August 2005, January 2006, February 2006.
  • AQS International Online Quilt Contest, American Quilter's Society, Paducah , Kentucky 42002 . September 1 through November 10, 2006.

Professional Society Memberships

  • Florida Craftsmen
  • Florida Artists Registry

Outreach and Teaching

  • Independent study course, junior level, in botanical illustration taught at Eastern Illinois University , Charleston , Illinois . Fall, 1995.
  • Invited presentation: Plants to dye for--the history of natural plant dyes.  Ohio State University Herbarium Lecture Series.  Columbus , Ohio . April, 1999.
  • Hands-on workshops for: Papermaking, Exploring and making simple textiles, Dyeing using natural plant dyestuffs, for “Plants and People; an introduction to ethno-botany” freshman level college course taught at Denison University , Granville , Ohio . Spring, 2002.
  • Paper-making workshop for second-graders at John Evans Elementary School in Oviedo , Florida . November, 2004.
  • Gyotaku (Japanese fish printing) on textiles for kindergarteners at John Evans Elementary School in Oviedo , Florida . April, 2005.
  • Book Reviews
  • Cannon, John and Margaret. 2003. Dye Plants and Dyeing. Timber Press, Portland , Oregon . IN: Plant Science Bulletin Vol. 49 (3), 2003.


PLEASE CONTACT ELIZABETH BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION.