Elizabeth Vels views her “Making Life” as a means of exploring the Sacred within the everyday, seeking to find meaning in the cycles of trauma and beauty in her life. Her goal is to discover hope and renewal, and to recognize the extraordinary in the ordinary. Paraphrasing Yoko Ono, she sees making art as a survival strategy. Vels’s artist books are central to her process and play a significant role in her broader work, which includes painting, drawing, etching, stitching, and ceramics. 

Born in 1937, Elizabeth Vels worked as a student nurse, gained a Teacher’s Diploma, married, and had 2 girls. By God and Cecil Skotnes’s reference, enrolled at Johannesburg College of Art. Thereafter, became a lecturer in Painting and Art History. She has explored papermaking, traditional bookbinding, weaving and etching. She later obtained a National Higher Diploma in Papermaking and Master’s Diploma in Technology. 

AVAILABLE WORK

Elizabeth Vels

Strelitzia & Friends​

Mixed Media on canvas

R42 700

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