Elizabeth Belois is a Cary based artist and educator with an MA in Art Education. Largely self-taught, she works in acrylics and a variety of drawing media. Her current collection, Where Silence Blooms, explores the theme of embodiment in relation to identity and how one’s physical body, somatic sensations, and autonomy of choice take up space. The series brings together contemporary floral abstraction on canvas with mixed-media portraiture on paper, each piece being a practice in processing trauma and  body image through intuitive mark-making.  

Each piece begins with stamped linocut patterns that form textured grounds, functioning as quiet imprints of lived experience. I allow them to remain visible, embracing the irregular prints, just as how bodies and lived experiences are imperfect.

Negative space is central to the work. Florals are shaped through absence, light emerging from color. This openness creates breathing room within the compositions; space for me and the viewer alike to take pause and reflect. The lace-like blooms suggest protection without rigidity, reflecting a shift from bracing to softening, a transition felt within the body and often engaged through somatic trauma work. In the portrait works, figures emerge gently from these layered fields. Edges around their flower crowns blur, forms lighten, and space replaces containment. 

By prioritizing openness and calm, I aim to create art that is breathed with by its owner; to invite viewers into their own experience of pause, softness, and quiet presence.