Biography
Elizabeth was born on September 4th 1981 in Los Angeles, California to Laurence W. Stewart and Jacqueline D. McChristian. Her parents noticed that she had a love for art early, because she was constantly drawing on the walls of their home in Glendale, California…. much to her mother’s dismay. During this time Elizabeth discovered her love for color. She used to spend hours drawing ‘color tornados’ surrounded by stars in her notebooks, or whatever she could find. Through her grade school years Elizabeth continued to draw and also dabbled in poetry.
However, it was when Elizabeth came to Howard University that she truly discovered her talent for art. After her first year being an undecided major she took her first drawing class, and began to hone her artistic skills. “After my first drawing class I just kind of exploded, I started to test out different ideas, and styles in my sketchbooks. It led me to try my hand at painting on clothes, I even did a concert backdrop, for a jazz musician, by the name of Tootie Heath.”
Indeed when Elizabeth discovered art, a whole world opened up to her. “It’s funny, sometimes things happen in your life that make you believe in fate. For example; after about a year of painting on clothes for people, there was a write up about me in a small local paper called the District Chronicles. Well after the article came out I got a call from the Fine Arts Department at Howard. The lady on the other end said she had been receiving calls asking about me, and when she couldn’t find me in any of the majors, she offered to basically hook it up for me. That’s how I got my major in painting. So I figured it was meant to be.”
After graduating from Howard University with a BFA in painting, Elizabeth struggled to find her voice artistically. “ I had an idea of what I wanted to say with my art, but I couldn’t really place how I was going to present it. Now I finally have it and I’m ready to show it to the world. So look out for my name in the future, but Elizabeth is so formal. You can call me Liz.”
Resume
Education
Howard University May 2007 B.F.A
Experience
Art-o-matic 2009
Exhibited in the annual Art-O-Matic event
Scenic artist
November 2007 – November 2007
Assisted in art direction for the small budget play of Oedipus Rex.