Meet Eliza Carver | Artist / Illustrator / Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eliza Carver and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eliza, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
I take extra care in taking time to reflect on projects and where I want to see my business grow. In a perfect world I hope to look back on my work and see something that created equitable change for womxn of color, work that inspired people to treat our world and others around us with more care and humility. By the end of my career I would like to be working for eco-conscious, outdoor oriented brands who’s values align with mine. I would like to illustrate a book and would love to see my drawings in the NY times as well as basketball courts and sides of buildings.

I’m very much a go with the flow type of person, so it takes me a second to be goal oriented, I tend to focus on the small details. Right now, I’m dipping my toes in a lot of different mediums. This can be both exhausting and exhilarating, I’m not sure what my niche is yet and I’m trying to not put pressure on myself to figure that out. I spend most of my time on the computer working on small animations, logos and illustrations. I’m equally inspired by finding the perfect piece of driftwood on the river and spending the day carving something. When I look back at my career I would like to see the influence of my hand in my digital work.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art is very reflective of my love of being outside. I’ve always been an athlete and when I’m not on my computer – I’m kayaking, mtn biking or skiing. I’m at home in my body and my illustrations reflect that, as well as my love of movement. I’m most excited about making more large scale work right now. I just completed a mural for an Elementary School up in AK and would like to make a couple murals a year. I also just reconnected with wood carving, its very meditative for me and I’m excited to do more of it. Right after I graduated from school, because I wasn’t supporting myself full time, I didn’t feel I was worthy of the artist title. I think that all changed when I took the pressure off myself to fully supporting myself with my art. I allowed everything to slowly grow and had confidence in my ability to make connections with the people in my local community. The process has been both frustrating and exciting to getting where I am today and am still learning so much. Whats helped along the way was following gut, allowing others to hold and support me, reaching out to other creatives for advice and most importantly taking lots of deep breaths.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in the tiny town of Trout Lake, Washington. Trout Lake is a stunning town right at the base of Mt Adams, one of the many volcanoes in the PNW. We are 1hr 20 East of Portland, Oregon. A perfect summer day to me is hanging out by the river. When friends visit we go camping north of Trout Lake. Sometimes we mtn bike at Post canyon or float the White Salmon River. It never gets old so we do it again and again. I love picking berries, I take friends to pick whatevers in season – blubes, blackberrys, hucks. Nothing is better then a crisp with fresh berries! The Trout Lake country in has yummy food and sometimes if your there on a weeknd some music.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to send a shout out to the Hannaford career center at middlebury high school, where I attended 10-12 grade. I started learning about design in Lisa Rader’s class and never looked back. I always knew I wanted to to something with art as a kid and her class gave me a direction and the confidence in myself to build own my path to becoming an artist and designer.

Website: https://www.elizacarver.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizacarver/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eliza.carver.372/