Elisa is a primarily self-taught artist based in Berlin, MA. She was a fiction writer until 2021, when she began painting small watercolors as research for a novel- in-progress and found that she just couldn’t stop creating visual work. Concerned by such an abrupt change in personality, she asked her doctor for a brain MRI (her request was declined.) Elisa never did finish that novel and has since discovered a love for making large-scale sculptures, which is kind of an inconvenient thing to learn about yourself in midlife. She is inspired by folk, outsider, and visionary art, and interested in elements of obsession and visual urgency. Her work has been featured at Contemporary Arts International in Acton, MA, and at the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson, where she also co-runs a biweekly creativity workshop for all ages. Elisa has studied at the Worcester Art Museum, Snow Farm, and the Berlin Art Institute in Germany.

Elisa’s fiction has appeared in Sequestrum, Bourbon Penn, Burning Word, Elsewhere Magazine, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Her work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers Conference. Her plays have been produced throughout New York City.

Say hi at elisa.abatsis@gmail.com