Hi! I'm Elizabeth

Since my first box of crayons I have found my greatest joy in creative expression.  As a young girl I dreamed of being an artist when I grew up.

Determined to make my dream come true I went to college to study fine art/ceramics.  I quickly became disillusioned with the academic art world.  It felt like I had to have a deep esoteric meaning to my art making in order for it to be valued.  Creating because it brought me joy wasn’t enough for academia.

I took a year off school to do an apprenticeship with a potter and quickly learned that also wasn’t for me. The potter I apprenticed with wasn’t happily expressing himself, rather he felt trapped making the things that people wanted to buy. This wasn’t what I wanted either.

I spent the next few years trying to make a living from my creative work, but it wasn’t working and I constantly struggled to make ends meet.  I felt defeated and started believing that if I couldn’t make a living creating art, then maybe art making didn’t have any value at all. 

I ended up taking a job in my family’s small business and struggling to have time or energy for creativity.  Once I became a mom, I pretty much stopped doing art altogether. While my dream of being an artist was forgotten, my creative soul still longed to be expressed and while I wasn’t expressing myself creatively I was deeply depressed.

One day I finally decided it was time to make creativity a priority again no matter what.  It wasn’t easy to reclaim my creative life. It took me being more committed to my vision and the life I wanted than the stories and limitations that were holding me back.  It took me creating over and over again even when it felt like what I was creating was horrible and I might never make anything worthwhile.

 

To reclaim my creative life I had to let go of all of the reasons why I couldn’t, all of the excuses about not having enough time, not having enough energy, not being good enough or talented enough, not having the right skills. I had to start believing that I was a priority worth investing in.

 

As I reclaimed my creative life I rebuilt my belief not just in what I was creating but also in myself.  Creativity gave me a sense of purpose.  Being creative made life feel worth living.  Expressing myself creatively gave me a deep sense of satisfaction.  

 

This experience awoke in me a passion for helping people have their own creative awakenings.  Now I help women who have become disconnected from their creative selves  or have always wanted to be creative but haven’t known where to start experience the joy of creative expression. 

Image of Artist Elizabeth Foley with foraged Chicken of the Woods Mushroom

I love to play with all kinds of creative expression and my favorite mediums are acrylic paint, ceramics and mixed medium art journals.  When I’m not busy in one of my studios, you’ll often find me roaming the mountains and forests nearby my home searching for the perfect place to hang my hammock or for edible wild mushrooms.  I love to gather around fires singing heart songs with friends and enjoy home cooked vegan food.

I live in Asheville, NC in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southern Appalachia with my 13 year old son and 100lb German Shepard.   I acknowledge the people on whose stolen homelands I reside – the Aniyunwiya peoples also known as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian and the Tsalagi peoples.  

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