ELIZABETH DE SOUZA has a background in magazine publishing and an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. She is a Visiting Scholar at Franklin & Marshall College, where she teaches a course about art, culture, and mental health. Liz is also co-curator of “Painting with Light: The Art of Bunch Washington,” a fall 2014 exhibition at the Phillips Museum. The show is the result of student research into the life of Liz’s father, a protégé of Romare Bearden and author of the seminal volume The Art of Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual. Liz’s nonfiction work-in-progress, “Sleeping in the Fire,” uses her father’s life as a catalyst for reflection about artistic achievement, mental health, and how social and cultural forces interact with the human spirit.
