Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Ewings.
Hi Liz, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I spent eighteen years as a designer in the menswear industry. I visited Hervey Bay, Australia, and saw Southern Ocean humpback whales for the first time in 2006. I fell head over heels in love and was determined to learn more about whales. I moved back to Seattle to study scientific illustration in the Natural Science Illustration program at the UW Extension.
After I finished, I wanted to understand science better, so I started taking math and science classes at a local community college. I transferred to the oceanography program at the University of Washington to study where whales live. Whales go where their food goes, and their food is plankton. The biggest animals have the tiniest food! That led me to focus on biological oceanography, and that’s where I saw plankton under a microscope for the first time.
After I graduated, I started working as an expedition guide on small cruise ships in southeast Alaska. I spent almost a year in grad school, which I quickly discovered was not for me. I remember looking at graphs of oceanographic data in class and thinking they looked like abstract paintings. I realized that I missed creating things and making things, and started making art using oceanography and plankton as my inspiration.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In art or any creative field, you have to accept a tremendous amount of rejection because it’s very personal and subjective, and you’re just not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It takes a while to get used to that and find your tribe. And I paint plankton and science things, so it’s kind of a weird, niche subject matter.
I love making art and looking for new ways to show people the ocean’s beauty, diversity, and significance. So I keep doing it and looking for people who resonate with it. And that’s what I try to focus on when the road gets bumpy.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a painter and I focus on the ocean and oceanography. I make abstract paintings of water and the ocean to explore the artificial and natural dichotomy. I incorporate images of plankton, retired nautical charts, and squares in an exploration of the balance/struggle between rigidly imposed boundaries and fluid chaos.
I work in squares following the oceanographic convention of breaking the ocean into squares and cubes, bringing order to chaos. My multi-panel pieces are painted as one, then separated and joined using spacers to repair the broken parts of nature.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
The ocean matters to me. Learning about the ocean made me care about it. Thousands of marine species are at risk due to greenhouse gas emissions, but they live in the ocean so we don’t see them every day. I think art about the ocean and the environment creates an emotional connection. And maybe that will give us all a reason to change our ways.
Contact Info:
- Website: lizewings.com
- Instagram: @lizewings_art
Image Credits
Mari Nelson
