We recently connected with Elizabeth Nolen and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Elizabeth, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned to do what I do by intuitively responding to an unknown, yet reverberating energy to create. There is nothing I could have done or wanted to do to speed up my learning process. I savor and respect my process. The skills most essential to my work are my willingness to risk—with courage—to be receptive and respond to my unique call to create. My creative expression is a spiritual practice. It is gift—a thin space where the Divine and I meet. An obstacle or ‘block’ to my practice or learning is artistic dryness. I recognize the rhythm of my soul is like the rhythm of the natural world. Dryness is a dormant time—a place of rest, where I patiently wait for the seed to blossom again.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a painter and poet. Born in San Antonio, Texas in 1960 with a BS in Biology and MBA in Management, I’ve had careers in the private and public sector. After raising three daughters, my husband and I moved to a 100-year-old bungalow in the Texas Hill Country. Upon this move, I responded to an unknown, yet familiar energy to paint and write in 2014. Happenstance lead me to a morning-long abstract painting session in Santa Fe, NM. To paint ‘abstract’ that day was to be a child again—vulnerable, without expectation or judgment—and that was scary, yet freeing. Little did I know it was only a continuation of my creative journey. A path resurrected that laid dormant since the age of 8 or so. When filled with emotion and unable to paint, I write poetry to capture movement within. Working with the abstract, drawing from life and memory, I invite the viewer to consider the unnamed beyond words. I seek to arouse the obscure, to arouse love; the force that unites us all.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My creative journey is a commitment to live my artist life. My life is prayer. My creative expression is prayer. My relationships are prayer. I am passionate about and share my life revealed with others. The language told through my creative expression is God’s love. My hope or mission is that my work gives others as much pleasure as God gives me as gift—to invite and encourage others to explore their own creative lives and to honor the essence of being human. A manifestation of my passion has been The Mask project 2020—a face covering designed with my artwork benefiting a youth home—and this year, a Free Little Art Gallery (FLAG) in my hometown. The FLAG is modeled after the free little library. It is a new and surprising way of experiencing art and poetry. The gallery makes art accessible to all—bringing about a more beautiful world.

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

The lesson I am unlearning is ME. As an adult child of an alcoholic and Enneagram 1, creating is an invitation to let go of perfection and instead: play. My art practice is a place of inner discovery and transformation. It is the most beautiful, ineffable experience to make space for the delight and passion of creativity. Creativity is our true nature. I am becoming. More myself. More love.

Contact Info:

• Website: elizabethannanolen.com
• Instagram: elizabethannanolen
• Other: Thank you from the depths of my heart for this opportunity!

Image credit:
Photography by: my middle daughter