Hello, I am Elizabeth Shackelford, a visual artist and aspiring front-end developer, UX designer and UI/visual designer, based in Portland, Oregon. As a visual artist, I specialize in oil-based colored pencil and graphite, and my work primarily centers around pet, animal and human portraiture; female empowerment; inner magic; and imaginative realism. I have two art businesses -- Furever Drawn and Elizabeth Casey Shackelford. Furever Drawn features my custom pet and animal portraiture, and Elizabeth Casey Shackelford features my work regarding female empowerment, inner magic, human portraiture, and imaginative realism.

I received my Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from Marylhurst University in 2011. The concentration of my B.A. was self-designed, primarily incorporating fine art and psychology. In my degree and thesis, I examined play as a universal, innate language of the creative core, with individual and integrated channels of movement/dance, visual art, music, and writing; and play's vital role in facilitating and guiding human development and healing throughout one's life, as play allows us to create and explore our self-paved journeys of self-discovery, healing, and transformation of the mind, body and soul. This work speaks to my life-long passion for creativity and the power of visual communication and exploration. My passion for creativity, visual communication, the arts, interdisciplinary studies, creative problem solving; the relationship between art, people, communication, and technology; and my fascination with the ways in which technology expands the landscape of creativity and communication, led me to not ony becoming a visual artist, but to also pursuing my studies in front-end development, visual design, user experience design, and information technology.