Elyse received her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2017 and her MFA in Studio Art from Maine College of Art & Design in 2020. Throughout Elyse’s portfolio of work, there are recurring themes of flowers as adornment, ephemera, pattern, language, and history. Elyse is fascinated with the human preoccupation with beauty for the sake of beauty and how people have grown flowers alongside their crops for nearly the entirety of agricultural history, missing them so much during winters that they became the root of thousands of patterns and designs for the home and body in practically every culture. Many of Elyse’s pieces intentionally use scale or specific floral patterns and embroidery to tell stories about women through the objects they surround themselves with in their homes. Flowers have the ability to speak for us all, revealing and affirming what it means to be human. Elyse is an adjunct professor and full-time Admissions Counselor for MECA&D, serving MAT candidates and BFA students in Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey, and New York. Elyse lives and works in Portland, ME.