Alumni Feature: Elizabeth Bishop Wheatley

I started BYU as a visual arts major, but let's rewind. If you asked me in elementary school what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd reply: an artist. I'd been given the impression that university studies were to be practical, professional, serious, and more than a little bit boring.

I was given the best advice from my dad: "You don't yet know what you want to do 5, 10, or 20 years from now— and that's okay. For almost any professional field, you would need a graduate degree, so why not study what you love now?"
I was not only able to, but encouraged, to have the depth and breadth of education as I could fit in. I realized that I had always enjoyed my humanities classes, and that the Interdisciplinary Humanities degree was designed to have students take a variety of classes (art history, language, film, history, environment, theatre, civics, etc) to provide well- rounded education centered on the human experience. Suddenly, having a variety of interests I wanted to pursue became an asset, not a liability. My humanities degree, more than any other, lended itself to such a broad professional landscape. The subsequent journey from my undergraduate degree to being a professional artist was a meandering path. I did not set out to become a professional artist when I started my CAL program— or any other specific career. It was something that sparked joy in the moment, something I enjoyed studying, and it was enough to gain the momentum I needed for future opportunities.

My first job out of graduation was working in big tech; I was running events but I knew it was not the end goal of my career. I left that job and had an opportunity to teach local community art classes. I never anticipated being an art teacher, but I fell in love with helping others connect to their innate ability to be creative.
During the pandemic, I was caring for my one-year-old, starting to get back into the groove of a creative art practice, and trying to find myself again. I was reckoning with how to navigate these seemingly competing parts of myself— artist, mother, self, etc. We were given an opportunity to move to a different state and house sit for a friend; and with the prospect of studio space and a rare opportunity to follow a childhood dream, my husband left his job to take over full-time parent duties, and I went all-in as a full-time artists. What started as a tentative leap of faith has become years of a career with lasting impact on my family, and those that interact with my art. I could never have anticipated those kinds of opportunities when I changed my major, and began taking IHUM classes. A humanities degree opened the windows of possibility and my own eyes, so that when opportunities came, I was prepared with the skills and ability to recognize them and act.

"I'm an artist because I've found that I cannot move through life without asking these questions, grappling with them, and making them tangible in a way that I can then communicate to someone else"

Elizabeth Bishop Wheatley, Professional Artist, President of the Utah County Art Board