Elizabeth Holtry, born in Virginia (1970), received her BA in studio art from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her MFA in painting from the University of Cincinnati. She has exhibited her work in regional and national venues, including Hillyer Art Space, the Jones Center for Contemporary Art, Signal 66, the Pelham Art Center, the Hooks-Epstein Gallery, the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, American University, Stephen F. Austin State University, the Delaplaine Art and Education Center, and the University of Delaware. Her recent work will soon appear in the forthcoming edition of New American Paintings. She is currently a professor of visual art at Mount St. Mary’s University and resides in Frederick, Maryland.  

Her recent series of paintings, entitled Salt, explores the beauty and underlying fragility of the Bonneville Salt Flats in remote Northwestern Utah. The remnant of an ancient saline lake and one of the flattest places on earth, this barren and bleached landscape is best known for hosting land-speed races and for providing an otherworldly backdrop for automobile advertisements. Geoscientists have recently concluded that climate change, nearby potash mining, and motor racing are imperiling the stability of the salt flats.

Her paintings focus on the landscape’s ethereal visual effects. Some paintings juxtapose patterns in the crust with reflections of the sky in standing water. Other pieces depict cracks in the parched earth, halite formations, or unsightly tire tracks. To emphasize the mystery of the place, she excludes the sky and mountains. Her aim is to foster environmental awareness and express her fascination with a landscape that is harsh, beautiful, and vulnerable.