(eli)zabeth Owens
harpist, transmedia artist,
Multi-instrumentalist
producer & educator
What I Choose To Believe
I like to describe my work as transmedia alchemy. Through the care-ful processes of combination, distillation, and reverberation, the raw materials of experience (improvised song, spontaneous video, poetic fragments, one-take performance, digital errors, psychological โglitchesโ) are transmuted into something beautiful and cohesive. An elixir that heals the soul.
My creation process is slow, intuitive, and experimental. It usually starts with a sound, or a theme that I build on through focused inquiry and experimentation (e.g., a sudden fascination with cave symbolism, or a reverberant melody I hear in my dreams). By setting aside time to listen and follow these dream-objects when they call, I am opened to a wider net of experience. By adding to, rearranging and re-experiencing these objects in new contexts, I become a player in the dreamscape and come to a deeper level of spiritual understanding through my engagement. Both I, and the object(s), are transformed.
I find this work deeply therapeutic and have always thought of it as such. The themes I am called to explore are personal, and include addiction, queer identity, disability, and mental illness. My practice, more than anything, helps me heal my own wounds. While I can only speak for myself, I believe we are all interconnected in our pain and joy and that this work will speak to all levels of human experience for those who take the time to listen closely.
UPCOMING SHOWS
beautiful things take time
knock knock
Knock Knock is a 15-track visual album that explores themes of recovery, spiritual reflection, self-compassion and the heroโs journey.
Alchemical Experiences
Artful experiments in time based media & emerging technologies