Elise attended an inner-city high school in Arizona and says the art program and classes offered there were “poor at best.” So she worked on her art at home on her own. But college was a different and she says, “After I waited on tables I realized that I did not want to do that for the rest of my life. I knew I wanted to be an artist.” Once the idea blossomed she says, “I dedicated all of my time to it.”
Her older brother was a strong influence and encouraged her to be practical because it is so difficult to make a living painting fine art as opposed to a career in animation. So taking her brother’s advice, she majored in children’s book illustrations and background painting for animation at the Academy of Art at the University of San Francisco. But that did not change her love for painting. After graduation, Elise did some work for an internet animation studio but found it boring and financially impossible to survive. So she returned to Phoenix for a while to save some money. By luck, she found a painting job and although it was not exactly what she wanted, she learned to paint in an abstract style.
About her work:Elise says because
of her training in
children’s
illustration, she has a background in realism that is tightly rendered.
She
paints beautiful landscapes, still life paintings, and flowers and says
the
beauty of the area where she lives artistically inspires her. And she
feels
that the green environment, architecture, and culture that surround her
in
abundance enrich her life, and that feeling can be seen in her
paintings. Because
she loves the water, her traditional paintings almost always have a
lake or
stream or the ocean in them. She also
paints abstract paintings and finds a release in them because she says.
“Realism has so many rules.” The freedom
and growth she finds in abstract art made her realize her artistic
horizons are
limitless.