I'm Liza (like Eliza, but without the E), and I'm so grateful you're here!  I'm an artist among all the mediums, an illustrator, painter, and enjoyer of all things creative.

With a love for rich colors and art that speaks for itself, I've grown up in the Texas Hill Country and have been sketching, painting, or creating something ever since I can remember. My painting process usually looks like listening to audiobooks, a lot of coffee, and accidentally drying up good paint brushes, all in a little one-room studio in an old german building downtown.  Along the way, I've learned that art is a beautiful process.  Not just the finished product when we can look back and realize "wow! I like that!", but in the beginning stages as well, when brush meets canvas. I think God puts a little spark of creativity in every person, whether you're in the studio, the kitchen, or the backyard, and through my work I hope to inspire you to make beautiful things and resist the fear of failure or insecurity. 

When I was eight, we spent Christmas in Florida with my whole family. I have a few distinct memories from that trip, but one of them was a little book of colored paper that my mom and dad got me. The day after Christmas, I made a little paper girl, like a 3D drawing, with the paper I'd gotten for Christmas. I was so proud of it, and took it carefully to my mom with my eight year old heart swelling with pride.

That little book of paper started something random and fun. My mom grew up in a family of business-owning, creative entrepreneurs, so she and my dad immediately came up with an idea that they pitched to us kids (I'm the only sister in a family of boys). I made my paper-people cutouts, and my brothers came up with their own designs. I have this memory of sitting around the table, in complete heaven, just getting to make my paper designs and create to my hearts content. We started a business, we were all in it together, and all we had to do was what we loved...make our ideas come to life.

I don't remember how long we had that little venture, but I think that’s when I really began to love creating art.  I painted. I sketched. I watercolor-ed. I started lettering and filling sketchbook after sketchbook with words and pictures. It was my hobby, but it was also more than that. It was how I expressed certain parts of myself, things that I couldn't say with words.

I love the creative process. From the moment an idea slips into the back of your mind, or lunges at you and throws you off balance, it’s a process that reflects the ultimate, divine Creator. I believe that each of us reflects Him in a small way, even if we don’t know it. Following in the footsteps of the originator of creativity (God), we get to make things that have never been made before. Art is like an expedition into uncharted territory, and every time you pick up a paintbrush, or a pencil, or a cookbook, or a guitar, you have a beautiful world of possibilities in your hand. Jesus gave this to us, and I think it gives a tiny glimpse into how he sees us. Just like we pour time and energy into our art, He pours His love into us, His Creation. Time, effort, not a mindless doodle on a page but a detailed creation of something beautiful, and then went a step further and brought us to life. WOW!!!! I just love that, and am crazy about the idea that we get to reflect Him in pursuing the ideas and gifts he’s given us.  Creativity is really a stunning and beautiful picture of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus: a world of dark, shapeless sadness and chaos, rescued and formed into a story of beauty, new life, and order.  And we get to be a part of that creative process as Image Bearers of our Maker.

I can’t really believe I get to do this for a job. It blows my mind every time I think about it and I’m SO GRATEFUL. I hope my small story inspires you to create more, and start something new, or pick something up that you might have started years ago and forgot. Thank you for being here.


Liza