Liz Spencer

About the Artist

Liz Spencer is an Annapolis, MD based artist and expecting to recieve her BA from St. Mary's College of Maryland in May 2019. She is a commissions-based artist who works in all mediums, particularly in acrylic paint and pen & ink. She is a prospective tattoo artist as well as a pet portrait artist, and is looking to start larger projects such as murals and other community projects.  Liz's non-commissioned works focus on Classical Greek beauty and body modifications. Her main inspiration for her projects comes from her trip to Greece in 2016, which was a life-long dream of hers, and she hopes to work abroad there at some point. She is also interested in history, particularly of France 1800's-1900's revolutionary history, and is planning on travelling to Southern France in the next few years. History and Art have always been connected in her mind, and she hopes to continue creating works that show a connection between the modern and the ancient.  

Artist's Statement

Using mythology, literature, and makeup, my work connects the bodily form and art through sculptural-style portraits that incorporate body modifications, such as makeup and tattoos. I critique views about the “artificial” nature of makeup, and the idea that tattoos or body modifications cover “real” beauty, by placing cosmetics and tattoos on the “perfect” bodies of Ancient Greece. I use a mix of cosmetics, large-scale prints of sculptural-style faces and bodies, and pen and ink tattoo designs in my appraisal of body modifications. Greek sculpture and myth have influenced my work, due to my traveling to Greece. The perfectly symmetrical faces of Greek sculpture shaped my ideas of beauty. The theme I play with through my incorporation of sculptural bodies is the comparison of “artificial” and “real” beauty.