Elise's sculpture as seen in the Art Building in 2008Elise graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in both Art Studio and Dramatic Art (Theatre). She was one of the first major contributors to the Davis Wiki as it was forming. She worked at The California Aggie for three and a half years, first as a staff photographer (winning the CCMA Best Features Photo in 2005) and later as a copyreader and Features Editor. She was always all over town with camera in hand and sometimes a giant 300 mm lens balanced on her shoulder as she biked. It's very likely you might have seen her covering sports alongside her friend and fellow photographer, Wayne Tilcock, photo editor of the Davis Enterprise. She might be one of the few citizens of Davis to have been granted access to the Crocker Nuclear Lab in order to photograph the Cyclotron for a California Aggie story.
She was a good friend and neighbor of Rob Roy, and the two were likely seen in the '05-'06 school year filming a music video at The Grad, Rob wearing the infamous giant teddy bear suit. They also attended Rock It back in the day and sang a pivotal duet of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" at G Street Pub among the likes of Ravenous. They also went to Cantina (aka Mantina) one night and sang with Lamar Heystek. She was seen photographingJason Webley and Rob at their performance in Central Park in 2006 and seen with Webley at The Bomb Shelter, sewing a whisker and/or fin back onto his stuffed catfish doll. She was later seen with Webley and friends in 2010, eating at Fuji's, Elise having hosted some of Jason's friends overnight at her house venue at the time, The Greenhouse, after they played in town.
Elise and fellow editors of Produce, celebrating the book's premiere with a reception in the Art Building lobbyFor two years, Elise served on the editorial board for Produce (Book). If you had walked through the Art Building circa 2006 and observed real produce hanging from all over the ceiling, it was Elise's doing. In 2007, she and 200 others participated in the Davis Undie Run. The same year, she and 822 others participated in Davis' World's Largest Bicycle Parade.
Elise directed and acted in two short plays as part of the Dept. of Theatre & Dance's 48-Hour Theatre Festival. In 2007, you might have seen the wizard battle that she and some friends staged while in line for the midnight premiere of Harry Potter V at the F Street Regal Cinema. You might have seen her as a spectator of the first Epic Quad Battle and been charged by her, a friend, and an inflatable crocodile at the second Epic Quad Battle.
DJing at KDVSShe wrote the play Ghost, Bathtub, Windmill, which was performed in the Wyatt Pavilion in 2008 as part of the ThirdEye Theatre Festival. She acted in the American premiere of Nights at the Circus, also at Wyatt, and would've appeared in the play Antics had she not fallen ill. She has done voices for Davis Radio Theater on KDVS and was an announcer for the Picnic Day Parade in 2009 with Dr. Andy Jones. She appears in the 2009 and 2011 KDVS Fundraiser videos. She is responsible for The Bathtub Experiment. She was a participant in Delta Lambda Phi's annual Davis Is Burning in 2008 (as Eli MeDown), in 2009 (as one half of Death Cab for Penis), and 2010 (as a tattooed, happy trail-ed male glam rocker). She occasionally read poetry at Poetry Night while it was still being held at Bistro 33 and read a few of her poems on Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour on KDVS.
Elise hosting music acts at KDVS, ones who also played at her show house in townElise helped paint a small portion of the Uncle Vito's Slice of N.Y. outdoor mural. She has a permanent mosaic panel in Nature's Gallery Court, located at the far west end of the Arboretum. The "gallery" was created as a project under the hospices of the Art-Science Fusion Program and features ceramic depictions of drought-resistant flora and their companion fauna. Elise's panel features a rose and a butterfly and is the only panel featuring a mammal, a Corgi enjoying a sniff of the rose. A less auspicious "public art" creation of Elise's is a small octopus drawing on the wall of Studio A at KDVS. She hosted "The Pharmakon" under the DJ name "The Drag Queen of Hearts" on KDVS for the Spring 2009 quarter. Retaining her DJ name, she co-hosted "Skinny Dipping" on KDVS in Summer 2009 and hosted live music acts at The Pink House, The Greenhouse (alternately called the House of Dog), The Attendance Office, and over the airwaves of KDVS.
She worked at the SPCA Thrift Store from July 2007 through August 2008. She worked as a graphic artist for The Davis Enterprise from April 2011 through January 2012. In 2011, she helped with what was called the Community Build, the revitalization of The Domes when they were under threat of demolition. In addition to digging new hugulkulture garden beds across from Domes 8 and 9, she did some planting and boulder arrangement in front of said domes. She also helped prepare the pathways in front of Domes 10 and 11 for compaction and did interior as well as exterior window washing. Also part of the project, she helped put the finishing layer on the Domes Bench, next to the Domes' yurt. Additionally, you can see the double rainbow mosaic she created on the back lefthand side of the bench. It features colorful stones, bottle caps with a mountain motif, and broken glass from her car window when it was vandalized in Midtown Sacramento not long before the Domes build occurred.
Photos
Elise's metal sculpture displayed at Delta of Venus in 2009
Working on the Domes cob bench in 2011
Fundraiser week at KDVS in 2011
In feathered headdress on the Quad for her Bathtub Experiment
Announcing at the Picnic Day parade in 2009 with Dr. Andy Jones
Working on the cob bench at the Domes
Performing in a play at Wyatt Pavilion
In drag for Davis is Burning at Freeborn Hall
Hosting musicians at one of her residential music venues, The Greenhouse
At Bike Fourth in 2011
At the Burning Bike Festival circa '07/'08
As an employee of the SPCA Thrift Store
In the California Aggie employee photo
