Gabrielle Torres

Once upon a time, in a tolerable land, lived a painter near the blistering, humid sea. Well, some might compartmentalize her as a painter, but she was a rather unconventional maker.

Elizabeth spent the majority of her time subconsciously daydreaming, living in a fantastical, imaginary, and whimsical environment. Although somewhat childlike, this escapism helped her repurpose and reclaim her views on a desolate yet auspicious world. Consequentially, filling her work with upcycled materials, emphasizing the transcendence from old to new. Elizabeth often plunders through her thrift store-sized studio, twisting, braiding, and stripping materials from the different seasons of her family life: shreds of floral sundresses looped between faded army fatigues- weaving tapestries of domesticity through material play. These sculptural paintings often depict family members that dematerialize as soon as they take form. The rhythms of life’s necessities form a mycelium-like matrix in Elizabeth’s surfaces.

As ephemeral days evolve, the fabrics change, and the shredded bags and bits of wedding dress unfurl like a lifelong scroll, telling the story of a maker, riding the waves of life. Elizabeth is pleased and cannot help but marvel in a conscious nirvana.