- Commercial Art Program, 1974-1976
St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, St. Louis, MO
- BFA in
Art & Design, 2006
- BS in
K-12 Art Education, 2006
- MSEd
in Secondary Education/Art, 2010
- MAEd
with an Emphasis in Character Education, 2012
Elizabeth
began her art career in the 1970’s as a freelance illustrator for educational
publishers, magazines and advertising agencies. While attending SIUE twenty-five
years later, she received an Undergraduate Research Academy Fellowship to
research handmade paper processed from local crop fiber. In 2005, she presented
a boxed set of handmade books of her research, “Handmade Paper from the Crops
of Madison County,” to the education library of Eden Project in Cornwall, UK; while a companion
sculptural book was juried into the permanent collection of the Crane Museum of Papermaking in Dalton, Massachusetts. After a trip to
Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mexico in 2006 with SIUE art students and her mentor, Laura Strand, Professor of Textiles at SIUE, her article about
her papermaking experience at “The “Smaller” Papel Oaxaca” in Mexico was
published by the International Association of Hand
Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA) in the fall of the same year. In
the summer of 2007, Adams-Marks had the pleasure of presenting her research in
papermaking from crop fibers at the IAPMA’s 19th Congress in Oxford, England.
Elizabeth currently teaches art at Oakville Middle School in the Mehlville School District in St. Louis County through an interdisciplinary Art-for-Life philosophy of education. Inspired by Cleveland artist, Seth Chwast, who is autistic, her students’ pastel animal paintings were exhibited along with Seth’s work at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands in 2008. In the spring of 2009, her lesson plan, “Abstract Expressionist Landscapes,” was featured in the St. Louis Art Museum’s E-Newsletter for Art Educators. Also in 2009, her student’s group project focusing on papermaking from corn fiber received second place in the "Power of Plants" competition at the Missouri Botanical Gardens; and she presented her award winning companion lesson plan, “From Seed to Final Stitch,” at the National Art Education Association Convention in Minneapolis. In 2012, Elizabeth, in collaboration with three other Mehlville School District middle school art teachers, was awarded the Maritz Arts and Education Fund for Teachers Grant for “Masks: Teaching Character Education in the Face of Cultural Diversity.” Meanwhile, Adams-Marks has taught adult papermaking-from-plants workshops at Missouri Botanical Gardens and Eugene Field House in St. Louis, as well as Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, IL.
The artist continues to create and exhibit her artwork in
solo, juried, and invitational shows:
From the Inside Out: Felt, Paper & Textiles (2014) - Fellow textile artist, Pat Vivod and Elizabeth (both from Southern Illinois, USA) have partnered to curate and participate in an international fibers exhibition at Jacoby Arts Center with Irit Dulman (Israel), India Flint (Australia), Fabienne Dorsman-Rey (Netherlands) and Rio Wrenn (Oregon, USA). The opening will be August 22, 2014!!
Jacoby Art Center, Alton, IL - From the Inside
Out (2014), Intertwined (2013),
Small Works (2008) and Delicate Nature (2006)
Edwardsville Arts Center, Edwardsville,
IL - Women's Marks (2013), Innovations in Textiles (2011)
St. Louis Artist Guild, Clayton, MO - Solo Show (2013) and
Horizons
(2008)
The Centre, Rolla, MO - Westward Bound
(2012)
Art St. Louis, St. Louis, MO.- Textures (2012)
Foundry Arts Centre, St. Charles, MO - In, On, and Of
Paper (2010) and Books, Books, Books (2009)
Main Street Art Gallery, Edwardsville, IL - Tossed and
Found (2010), Elements (2010)
and Texture (2008)
Eugene Field House, St. Louis, MO - Papercraft (2009)
Craft Alliance, Clayton, MO - Emerging
Artists (2006)
