Elizabeth Matheson
A native of Hillsborough, North Carolina, Elizabeth Matheson earned her BA from Sweet Briar College and later studied at the Penland School of Crafts with John Menapace. One-person exhibitions of her work include Hollins University, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the North Carolina Museum of Art, Duke University, Western Carolina University, the National Humanities Center, and the Gregg Museum at North Carolina State University. Her work is in the collections of Duke University, the Ackland Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Art, among many others.
Among her publications are To See, poems by Michael McFee, North Carolina Wesleyan Press, 1991; Blithe Air: Photographs of England, Wales, and Ireland, Jargon Society, 1995; and Shell Castle, Portrait of a North Carolina House, Safe Harbor Books, 2008. In 2004, Elizabeth Matheson was awarded the North Carolina Award for Excellence in the Arts, the state`s highest civilian honor.
- Light
- Smart, funny, and forgiving friends
- Movies
- All those who make Hillsborough the best place for a native daughter’s happy return
- Nags Head
- Italy
- Unheralded beauty
- Salt
- Purple Crow Books (see #4 above)
- Disposable income
I’ll tell you what North Carolina, and Hillsborough in particular, cannot do without. And that is Elizabeth Matheson.
Elizabeth’s wonderful work, brings life into all her photography: For me “Shell Castle” a rather haunted house, becomes very alive. And Elizabeth is the life of her parties when entertaining and is the best hostess one could ever know.
Oh, Elizabeth…my longtime (she’s hitting 80 now, and I’ve known her since I was 23) Charlottesville friend, Newby, recently told me (at this age, the only two qualities I really admire in friends are loyalty and a sense of humor. Everything else comes and goes….”.
Facetiously, I asked her “Well, what about if they’ve also got money?. She glared at me for a moment before saying “TRUST me…..that goes, too. When’s the last time you had to pay for an MRI?…”
Admiringly as ever, and congratulations,
David Terry
Elizabeth’s work touches a quiet spot deep within the viewer, a spot hidden and sometimes forgotten. Her work is a meditation on cultural vulnerability, be it Southern, Italian, or Cuban… It tells of beauty, love and loss.