We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elizabeth Frank. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elizabeth below.
Hi Elizabeth, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I love this question because it really makes me think about the relationship between resilience and creativity. Growing up I faced a lot of challenges. My mother was very ill. We moved a lot. I went to 5 different elementary schools. By the time I reached high school my mother had committed suicide. So my upbringing was fraught. I think in order to cope I developed a very rich inner life where I could rely on my own creativity to see me through difficulties. As a young artist starting out this served me well. I listened to my inner voice. I followed my muses. Honestly, given my background I don’t know that I knew any other way to survive. As anyone with a career in the arts will tell you, it is not an easy path. Whenever I faced challenges along that path I found ways to re-invent my creative practice. That ability to rely on one’s inner voice and to reinvent when difficult circumstances arise are qualities that help me to be resilient.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m a carved wood, mixed media sculptor residing in the southwestern United States. A guiding principle in my life is to walk lightly on the earth. To that end I choose sustainable, found and reclaimed materials whenever possible. Each summer or fall I visit an aspen forest in Northern Arizona or New Mexico to collect downed wood for my carvings. I view each journey as a pilgrimage.
By choice my visual style appears naive but my artwork is fueled by both complex and elemental issues, a threatened natural world, human migration, fear of the other and simple hope all make their way into my visual narrative.
The part of southern Arizona where I live is about 60 miles from the US/Mexico border. The region is known for its sky islands, mountain ranges rising abruptly from surrounding deserts and grasslands. The flora and fauna intermingle in the sky islands creating a region of exceptionally high biodiversity. Climate change and construction of miles of border wall threaten the region’s already stressed wildlife while doing little to stop those migrating across the desert.
My work would not exist had I not spent hours walking in the woods and deserts of the southwest observing the plants and animals, had I not seen perhaps, one hundred people crossing the desert heading north from the Mexican border, walking silently, single file, in search of safe passage, had I not helped free a coyote from a steel jaw trap.
I make my art to keep my world in balance.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My answer to this question is similar to that in the first one. As an artist I think it’s important to learn early in one’s creative practice to listen to your own voice, respond to the world through your art with your unique lens rather than following trends Learn to be flexible. Things will not always work out the way you hope but if you are creative then you will find a way forward.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
When I feel overwhelmed I try to connect with the natural world. This may be as simple as a walk along a nature path, or a retreat to a remote place in the natural world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.elizabethfrank.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethfrankartworks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabethfrankart
- Other: Shop: https://www.elizabethfrankartworks.com
Image Credits
Photo of Artist credit: Tim Fuller
