Author: alizabethworley

If you’re interested in a commission, here’s a little bit about how the process works.

Instead of paying me, you can pay the full price as a donation to the International Rescue Committee (be sure to include me as the gift recipient, so I know the donation went through–see step 7!)

1. First, go to the IRC website. 

2. Click on the menu and select “How to Help.”

3. Click on “Rescue Gifts.”

4. Under Rescue Gifts, you can select one or more gifts, adding up to the full commission price. Add gifts to your cart.

5. Go to Checkout.

6. Enter Billing Information.

7. Fill out a card (you don’t need to write anything), and *be sure to include my email address as the recipient!!*

8. Submit donation.

That’s it 🙂 I’m happy to get started on a commission before receiving a donation card, as long as it comes before I send it off. 

Prices are:

$150 for a 8×11 oil painting (1 figure)

$60 for a full page pencil or charcoal drawing (1 figure)

$30 for a quarter page drawing (1 figure)

Plus shipping.

If you want a different size or more than one figure, feel free to reach out!

Mostly, I haven’t posted for so long because my computer won’t update to the latest version of chrome—I actually had to post this on a different computer. Haha. 

But also, a lot has happened in the last few months, so a lot has slipped my mind. 

In terms of writing, I am beyond excited to share that my essay, Love and Dirt, was published in Guernica magazine! This essay might be my favorite I’ve ever written. And I love Guernica—I’ve read so many essays from there that changed my life and inspired me to write. To have an essay published there is such an honor.

I also had a poem, Acre Lot with Furnished Lodgings, published in the ever delightful and idiosyncratic Drunk Monkeys, and before that, I was able to contribute (alongside so many other wonderful authors) to Utah’s 125th anniversary anthology with a short (125 word) essay, Let Me Tell You About The Evergreens.

Healthwise, things have been a little hectic—I had some gastritis (and possibly an ulcer) which lead to some nausea and vomiting for a couple weeks, then I had Covid and Strep within a few weeks, plus the bouquet of colds and bugs the kids bring home from daycare. Then a couple weeks ago, I was bedbound for a couple days with bad vertigo that has pretty much all subsided (I took prednisone and did some exercises for BPV, and between them something helped!). 

Which is to say, this body is a little worn out and haggard. However, I have taken up drawing again more recently, and that has been a real source of happiness. I’m grateful that I’ve been up to that (drawing has mostly not been an option for the last few years, due to CFS and hand pain) and that I’ve been able to do it with some consistency. Lately I’ve felt that drawing is one of the most enjoyable and peaceful things I do. Everything else melts away and years of practice and familiarity take over. 

Hopefully I will get around to posting some portraits soon!

That’s all for now—

much love,

Lizzie

We’ve uploaded a couple Story Dates after our first one, but so far this is my very favorite that we have ever made. I do think I’m primarily a writer at heart, but there are some great things about just recording a story and telling it verbally and visually, and I enjoy being a little bit of a jack of all trades (even if not the best, haha).

Part of why I like this one is because we got to incorporate it into our trip to St. George (many years after our honeymoon) and take some fun shots, but also I just think it’s good to normalize things like that honeymoons aren’t going to be 100% perfect and that it’s easy to set up unrealistic expectations.

Feeling a little blue for a day probably doesn’t really count as “Honeymoon Blues,” but I still think it’s worth acknowledging that it can happen at any number of different levels and is probably more common than we think. This is a great Washington Post article about general honeymoon or post-wedding blues.

That said, I hope you enjoy this story of how a blue day ended up a little brighter 🙂

I’m so grateful to Luke Whisnant for publishing “Waiting for a Safety and Emissions Inspection at Jiffy Lube” in Tar River Poetry. It’s such a beautiful journal that I’ve loved for years, and it’s so exciting to appear in it.

I’ll admit that sometimes I get discouraged about the submitting process. It can be tough to get multiple rejections in a week or day, and it can be hard to go months or even years without getting an acceptance (though it certainly helps to submit more often). But I’m so grateful to those who keep encouraging me to submit, and some weeks, like when I am published on Brevity’s blog and in Tar River Poetry in the same week, I feel heard and heartened.

I realized last night, too, that both pieces published this week were written after finishing my MFA program. Honestly that means a lot to me–my MFA program was absolutely incredible and I loved it, but it can be so hard to feel like I can do this writing thing without the structure and workshops and feedback and creative atmosphere that were so abundant while I was there. So it’s nice to have a poem and an essay published from this era of writinghood.

Write on.

I’ll warn you up front that this piece is about grooming behavior and sexual abuse, which I don’t talk about very often. But I do sometimes, and I’m so grateful to Brevity for publishing Don’t Let Him Rob You Twice on their blog.

Last week, I did some commissioned portraits it was so fun, and the person I worked with was so nice. She gave me permission to share them and said that she loved them, which made my day!

It’s been a while since I’ve made a habit of portrait art, but I’ve been getting back in the swing and remembering just how much I love it. 🙂