Community Corner

Workhouse Artist Elizabeth Floyd and Her Rendezvous With Destiny

She's making it happen.

Elizabeth Floyd always wanted to be an artist, and came to grips with her destiny as she counted the 30 candles on her cake. She'd been an architect for five years, and there was little consolation in the practicality of having chosen architecture over art.

"I was trapped in a cubicle," Floyd recently told Patch. "I need to do something creative every day to be fulfilled."

Floyd confided in her husband, S. Floyd, on her 30th birthday, and told him about her greatest ambition.

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"It took me a long time to listen to my own voice and follow my dream. I've just been very lucky that I have a husband who is supportive and instead of calling it a foolish dream, he asked me how we could nurture it. I'm very thankful that he's such a thoughtful guy."

Floyd, 38, who lives with her husband and 18-month-old daughter in Mount Vernon, enrolled in art classes at The Art League in Alexandria. Four years and a bunch of classes later, she officially turned away from architecture and became a full-time artist. Her medium is oil paint, and she specializes in landscape and still-life scenes. She only paints from natural light, and is working on a weekly series "Bountiful Observations", which marks the change of the seasons. So far, she's finished 51 of the 8" by 8" paintings. 

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Floyd, a native of San Antonio, Texas, earned a degree in business from Seattle University and a master's in Architecture from Texas A&M University.

"It all started when I was in Seattle getting my undergrad and down the road was the Cornish College of the Arts," Floyd said, "and I remember driving by it and thinking: 'Oh, I wish I could go there instead of what I'm doing now!' I remember asking my parents if I could change my major to fine arts and history and they said, 'No!'"

Floyd joined the Workhouse Arts Center as an associate artist last August, will conduct a still-life workshop in April and will be a featured artist in May. Her work can currently be seen in the McGuireWoods gallery in building W-16 at the Workhouse. Her pieces cost $400 for an 8" by 8" framed still life to $2,500 for larger pieces.  

"The objects that populate our lives have the means to speak to others, and I hope I can encourage people to pause and find something to appreciate," Floyd said. "I love art because it gives me an opportunity to show and express what I find so remarkable and beautiful in this world." 

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