I am an artist. No other word can capture my essence with more accuracy. To me, being an artist is not an aspiration, a career or a skill, it is a way of life. I am an artist in everything that I do, from my thoughts and perception to my words and actions. I exude an awareness that my every decision creates a stroke on the painting that is my life. The physical art I create is what you can see, a glimpse within the world I never leave, the world I create, the world in a state of constant evolution.
Me holding a commissioned piece
Me in the reflection of my mixed media oil painting, "Oneness"
My name is Elizabeth Lee Rodda, but I also go by Lizi or Earthling Eliza. I am an eighteen year old artist from San Jose, California, soon to be New York as a Parsons School of Design student. While my current work mainly consists of paintings, drawings, mixed media and digital art, my passion lives in creative expression that is free to explore and evolve. I don’t put myself in a box. A pattern within my work is the wide variety of concepts, styles, mediums and ways I go about tackling my subjects. Since my art reflects my state of being, my portfolio tells a story. When looking at the evolution of my art, one also sees my evolution as a human being.
Achievements:
At age twelve, my painting received an honorable mention in a Placerville Arts Association show. At thirteen, I gave weekly art lessons to two different fifth grade classes until being interrupted by Covid-19. At fifteen, my painting, “Z”, got into the NUMU ArtNow 2022 Brave New Worlds exhibit. At sixteen years old, I tested out of my courses for junior and senior year and graduated early. At seventeen I applied to two art schools, Parsons and Pratt, and got accepted into both with merit scholarships. In May 2024, my digital piece, “The Wound is Where the Light Enters” was featured in issue 01: “DITCHOTOMY” of Asterisk Magazine. In June 2024, my mixed media oil painting, “Oneness” got into NUMU and genARTS 4th Annual Experimental Exhibit: Boundaries.
Me with my paintings at the Placerville Arts Association Show
Me with my painting "Z" at the NUMU ArtNow 2022 Brave New Worlds Exhibit
2023 Graduation photos by my aunt, Chantal Marie Photography
Background:
I have been a creative for as long as I can remember, but I started taking art seriously when I was eleven years old. I can recall the exact moment, staying up watching Parsons and Pratt student vlogs, that I first set eyes on my goal to attend art school in New York. I haven't took my eyes off since.
I have complex post traumatic stress disorder, which has played a big role in my journey as an artist. I will save the complicated series of living situations and events that gave me this disorder for a more appropriate time. What happened to me doesn't belong here because it doesn’t say anything about who I am. What I did about it -on the other hand- speaks volumes.
Through art, I found a way to see what I was going through as a way to get out of it. When I could not speak my truth, art was my voice. Like alchemy, I used what was destroying me to get out of the destruction. I would escape reality through the mixture and application of paint on the canvas, while at the same time recreating that same reality I was escaping, but through my eyes and with my hands. I would reclaim it in a way that brought me up instead of tearing me down. With every piece I created, I saw myself get closer to the goal I set that night when I was eleven. Six years later, I achieved that goal when I enrolled at Parsons School of Design.
This is just the beginning.
Once I was able to begin healing, the need to use art as a means of survival dissipated. That passion, however, didn't go anywhere. If anything, it grew stronger as I began seeing infinite possibilities of what I could create beyond the realms of conveying trauma. Now I can convey what lies underneath the surface of trauma and the potential beyond it, individually and collectively. I find a deep fulfillment in expressing spiritual observations and lessons I have learned. I find excitement in experimenting with different materials and stepping out of my comfort zone. I embrace bold ideas, and grow with every step forward on my journey.
