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Southern Tier Life / July 2021 / ISSUE 005
ELIZABE TH MARKS by Cat White
Elizabeth Marks moved with her family from New England to a 220-acre dairy farm on East Hill in Elmira when she was 7 years old. “We were so damn poor,” she says, smiling as she thinks back on memories tucked away that will forever tie her to the Southern Tier, though she has returned to New England, currently residing in Connecticut. Elizabeth’s early years were a dichotomy between the safety, serenity and natural beauty of the farm, where she tended the calves and played with barn cats, and the chaotic and cruel world of elementary
grades, then abruptly stopped, which forced her to relocate to T.K. Beecher Elementary School. Although she was shy and tried to be invisible at school, Elizabeth’s creativity flourished when she was home on her farm in a variety of ways. “Our neighbors were miles away,” she says. “As soon as I could write, I started drawing.” So, when she wasn’t hanging with baby cows, Elizabeth was cultivating her creativity through drawing, painting, designing clothes and even a mini-golf course on the family farm! As she entered Southside High School, Elizabeth’s parents divorced, and she moved with her mother and sister closer to town. She also abandoned her shyness and found her tribe with a group of outgoing, fun friends that would forever tether her to the southern tier for the rest of her life. “I’m really grateful for the time I spent there,” she says. “I’m so thankful that I had roots somewhere, and lifelong friendships.” That tribe of teenage friends has brought Elizabeth back to the southern tier frequently to visit, even though her family is now scattered across the country.
school, where she dreaded the taunts of careless kids who teased her about her “farm” smell and handed down clothing, as well as her thick glasses blue-eyed blondeness, which the kids mocked when she had to switch to a grade school that was predominately black. “I didn’t feel like I belonged there,” Elizabeth said. She explained that the school district had bussed her to Arthur W. Booth School from 2nd to 5th
After graduating from high school in 1989, Elizabeth first attended Corning Community College for Mechanical Engineering then took up Art History and Visual Arts at SUNY New Paltz and finishing at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco with an MFA in Interior Architecture and Design. Throughout her college experience, Elizabeth traveled extensively, even spending a semester in Italy learning about art. After college she moved to the Big Apple working within the theatre world as an assistant/production assistant, working high end catering gigs when necessary, and in between participating in art shows and honing her artistic
