Elizabeth

Walters

MASTER OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN - Auburn University - Auburn, AL BACHELOR OF SCIENCE - COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE - ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN - Auburn University - Auburn, AL BACHELOR OF ARTS - STUDIO ART - Wake Forest University - Winston-Salem, NC I have professional work experience in art, graphic design, product design, modular commercial carpet design, and teaching. I am currently the head of the fine arts department and the middle/ high school visual art teacher at GRACE Christian School in Raleigh. Being that my background has spanned product design, fine art, and art instruction, I have a wide breadth of experience in carpet design, ceramics, website design, watercolor painting, murals, glass art, graphic design, and sculpture. Having experienced different art career possibilities myself, including graphic design for an advertising company and working as a full-time artist in Birmingham, Alabama for five years, designing commercial carpet tiles for Milliken in LaGrange, GA, and teaching art to middle and high school art at GRACE in Raleigh for 14 years, I am passionate about teaching others about the many options available to them.

As an artist and art teacher, I like to try different art processes, media, techniques, and styles. I am always experimenting and consider myself a life-long learner. I have experience designing a broad range of products, including carpets, ceramics, websites, clock faces, murals, glass paintings, magazine spreads, advertising, furniture, and children's book illustrations. I hope to bring my broad knowledge of different mediums to others, offering them the opportunity to try different creative processes. My role as an art teacher is to guide my students so that they may develop their own unique gifts and develop their own passions. I strive to provide the information, tools, and structure necessary to inspire independent discovery and life-long learning. Everyone has his or her own unique talents, skills, and interests. I hope to stimulate artistic inquiry and creative expression. Encouragement is the best motivator. Those who are encouraged in art will be more likely to enjoy it and continue to pursue it. I have met many adults who are convinced that they are not artistic because of childhood and classroom criticism. Art should be a safe space for artistic exploration and creativity where everyone is valued and respected. Art can be a wonderful vehicle for people to explore their uniqueness. Art can provide the confidence to embrace individualism and celebrate it rather than conforming to societal norms. Art can be a vehicle for expressing ideas, learning to solve problems, and exploring within a creative environment. Most of all, it is my hope that through art, I can inspire others to experience the world, while making a difference in their own communities.

Acrylic, Colored Pencil, Drawing, Fiber Art, Jewelry, Mixed Media, Pastels/Oil Pastels, Pen/Ink, Pottery/Raku, Printmaking, Sculpture, Water Soluble Oil, Watercolor/Gouache