You can see the handmade plates and paperweights I create at Portiaelizabeth.com, learn more about my journey to becoming an artisan and about my artistic process as well.

I have been interested in art and being an artist since the age of three when I realized I could do better than just drawing a stick figure. After I received my BA in Fine and Applied Art from the University of Illinois in Chicago, I spent the next couple years doing illustration for children’s publications such as: The Magic Nut Cracker. In my last year of college I discovered filmmaking and animation which took me in a new direction that lasted for decades and it wasn’t until many years later that I returned to my original artistic roots (though I was an avid doodler and crafter all along).

 

After serial careers in a wide range of areas, (see autism advocacy and scientific research, set-decorating, writing for TV and writing), I had an epiphany that I was in a better situation today, to pursue making a living from my creative artistic side, than I’d been post-college graduation, many years earlier. This was due to the existence of the internet, e-commerce platforms and Adobe Photoshop –  new tools and opportunities that did not exist when I graduated from college with an art degree. And so I learned these things and also how to do decoupage-under-glass (inspired by Fornasetti and John Derian) and then I started my online design shop: Portiaelizabeth.com

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