Elizabeth Eiten's subject matter is simply what she knows. She grew up with her grandmother, an artist who also owned a 1600-acre hunting camp in northern Michigan. To survive the isolation she spent her weekends and summers learning about wildlife and making art. These interests became her coping skills as a trauma survivor. Planning and arranging her photographs is a process of healing parts of herself that are too scary to verbalize. It's therapy. She doesn't care to work with dead animals because of dissociative emotions that arise, but she finds the symbolism necessary. When she finishes a piece and sits with it, she knows she was able to portray the horror and realness of her experience. She exhibited her artwork because there are people who cannot put words to their experience. She wanted them to know that there are other means of expression.
