Elizabeth Wittke, born in Fort Wayne, IN (1979), currently lives and works in Tucson, AZ. Growing up in the rural Indiana countryside, she spent an inordinate amount of time drawing. She attended the University of Saint Francis and American University in Washington, D.C.

Wittke is best known for her surrealistic figurative oil paintings and intimate still lifes. Her figurative paintings are of people she knows and the objects depicted have a personal value, and are often linked to her childhood experiences in the Midwest. Wittke creates primarily in oil, but also enjoys using acrylic and mixed media.

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Artist Statement

My artwork, characterized by surrealist figurative and still life oil paintings and mixed media pieces, explores various aspects of the neurodivergent experience of hyperfixations and ruminations on ‘what if’ questions. I often depict produce and objects, painting them as they decay–either slowly or quickly, and study the process as it happens. Through this study, these objects become personally meaningful to me. I incorporate skulls into my work with the obvious associations with death, but also with life–these objects still exist, alive or dead, and can indicate a presence or history in the world. Finding signs of history or the presence of memory helps to combat feelings of unreality and disassociation and provides proof of the interaction between self and other. More humanoid objects are given lives and stories of their own and reveal the disconnection that can exist between neurodivergent people and most humans, exploring what might happen if that alienation was revealed through physical appearance.