We recently connected with Liz Wood and have shared our conversation below.

Liz, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I always loved art ever since I was little, but it seemed everything I created was more copy and paste nothing original to myself. When I feel in love with the technique of printmaking, that was when I dove into wanting to create something more meaningful within my work. I struggled creating unique and different pieces until a tragic event happened within my life. When walking out to 4 broken windows of my car, no reason or explanation, nothing stolen within the car I couldn’t get past the fear and pain it caused me questioning who could do something so aggressive to me. That’s when I used art as more of an escape and therapy to cope with what happened.
I started with experimenting with printing with glass, placing ink onto the pieces and pressing the glass onto paper. I became addicted to the shapes it created and the abstract story each print became. Within the printing process I dealt with a lot of layers and ghost prints, which is printing the plate multiple times without putting more ink on, this creates a fainter outline and look within the piece. To create the designs, I enjoy researching nature and destruction finding patterns that remind me of broken glass.
After the incident the name came with no questions Shattered Works deals with the beauty within destruction. Its working through the struggles of your everyday and finding the light within the cracks. Because we are all a little broken, we just need to find our light.

Liz, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Graduate of Grand Valley State University with a bachelor’s in fine art, I started to push to not only make art but to share it with others. I would describe my work as a craft that someday would become a business. When first creating prints, I always believed that my work wasn’t meant to just be hung or on a flat surface. So, I have broadened my products into more useful and wearable works to connect better with my clients. I believe my work is unique with the abstraction it creates, always questioning what truly you may be looking at and what feelings it gives the audience. I am currently applying to various artist markets to show different cliental the new looks I have created and will continue to experiment with. I hope with each market I can connect with various artists, cliental and potential buyers to build a business I can call my own. I am proud of pushing that boundary of fear, anger, and hurt finding the escape, a relief or sense of happiness within the experience. I believe somethings cannot be perfect and can be a bit broken, but it’s the light within the cracks that keeps you going and believing for a better tomorrow.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Honestly right now is the biggest pivot because it’s the time I’m pushing this idea into reality, to officially call it a business. Art has always been a hobby, a passion but I have never thought of it as a reality until currently. It seems everyone needs to work and make a paycheck but I always question what is the thing that makes me happy or makes me want to wake up and go. Well, that has always been Art, I keep going back to it and wanting to be more involved in it. But the biggest question is always how you can make money off your art and who out there will be the ones who love it. With that said I have put less hours into the restaurant field and have refocused into my work, applying to more artist markets and getting my name out there entirely. Hoping this new pivot may create a long term career.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

“Success is the opposite of failure”

Every time I have failed something it has actually led me into a positive or made me realize steps to take to become successful. Once you fall you have to get back up. My artwork wouldn’t be a thing without failure, it was the accidents that created my final outcomes in a lot of my finished pieces.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shatteredworks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shatteredworks

Image Credits
(none) all images were taken by myself, Liz Wood