Elizabeth Garden
AUTHOR

Elizabeth Garden

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I think many folks, especially artists like me, suffer from the fallout from the undiagnosed mental illness of others. For example, when I found out there was a mass murderer in my family, I wasn't the least bit surprised. Luckily for me, my artwork served as an escape hatch and a pathway to document the rawness of that tightly packed energy which sought release. I believe that when suffering is put into words or form, the sharing of it dilutes the pain as others harmonize in that same key, and real healing can began. Indeed, my novel Tree of Lives is used by therapists for adult patients of childhood abuse. (https://www.treeoflives.net/testimonials-2-2/) Bigotry and its evil twin, white male domination, are woven into the fabric of the typical 20th Century American ethos on full display in my life as it is in the household of my protagonist, Ruth Thompson. Ruth’s rocky path out of the “Wildwoods” can be seen as a heroine’s journey through the invisible gauntlet of unaddressed childhood trauma. I like to play golf. But sometimes my ball goes way off into another fairway and the rest of the journey to the cup is the arduous correction to make it to the place where I once belonged. Ruth's life (and mine) in Tree of Lives takes a very similar tack - the journey to the happy place I had in mind, but in a parallel universe compared to everyone I know. I am not a writer who likes to do art. Rather, I am an artist who wrote a book. I started out my career as an illustrator but learned layout and art direction in order to get a better salary -- albeit always less of a salary because I was a woman and even more less because I lacked a college degree. With two babies to raise (three, counting perpetually un- or underemployed mates), I took what I could get and tried as hard as I could. As for the rest of my bio, read Tree of Lives. It's all there. Elizabeth Garden
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