Elizabeth Hall is an artist, herbalist, and educator who lives with her family in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Much of Elizabeth’s work explores injury and healing through a variety of approaches and art genres. While earlier works often explored emotional and physical trauma through an autobiographical and social lens, more recent work deals with the interconnectedness of human and environmental health by engaging with the concept of ecological medicine and herbal folklore. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Arts from Meredith Collage and a Masters of Fine Arts from East Carolina University, with additional studies including printmaking in Florence with Swietlan Kraczyna, and painting in Paris with Ben Long; further studies include graduate work in The Baltics and Central America. Elizabeth has exhibited her work internationally, as well producing commissioned portraits for clients throughout The United States for the last 25 years. Elizabeth has served as a professor and lecturer at several universities and colleges since 1998.
Elizabeth’s interest in the art of herbalism began during her graduate studies in Belize and Guatemala in the late 90s where she learned the importance of plant medicines and the urgency of protecting both the plants and the cultures that pass on the knowledge of them. In the old market of Belize City, Elizabeth sought out the guidance of traditional Belizean herbalist Barbara Fernandez. Fernandez stressed the relevance of using all of ones senses to know and to understand plant medicines. This insight and appeal to the senses became an inspiration for Elizabeth to approach and study herbalism as an art and as a welcomed opportunity to accompany the psychological healing power of visual art with an artform for healing the body. Elizabeth’s formal herbalism studies include Foundations of Medicinal Herbalism and Herbal Apothecary with Teresa Boardwine, RH(AHG), and The Forgotten Energetics of Traditional Western Herbalism, the Six Tissue States and Diagnostic Skills with Matthew Wood, RH(AHG). In 2013, Elizabeth founded SubHerban Roots LLC, offering small batch homemade and homegrown herbal products to the greater DC area. In 2018, SubHerban Roots LLC was changed to SporaStudios LLC with an expanded mission to connect all of her family’s diverse interests in eco-art, permaculture, herbalism, and the visual and performing arts.
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