Elise Love-McCorkle (b. 1994, she/her) grew up in North Austin, studied within the Texas Media & Analytics program at UT Austin, and has spent the majority of the last decade living in Lisbon. From posters and commercial projects to conceptual art pieces, her visual work has been exhibited in Lisbon, London, and Mexico City. It has also been published in SANd, a Berlin-based poetry and art journal founded by a writer from Oklahoma, and her writing has been printed in the oldest continuously published poetry journal in the United States, poet lore. Additionally, she is the director of Centro, a forthcoming artist-run initiative that will support artistic developments that deepen her understanding of anthropocentric ways of seeing.
Since 2021, she has practiced low-cost and low-waste artistic creation by: repurposing her existing materials; using spare or leftover supplies provided by the art spaces in which she has worked, or that have been contributed by fellow artists; and by repurposing discards.
Her textile practice acknowledges the present models used for the mass production of textiles, textile uses in relation to machines and independently as assemblies, and the high-value applications of textile waste.
She made her first textile assembly in spring 2025, when she reconstructed a painting as a tarp by heavily sealing the canvas and lining the edges with steel grommets. This artwork, however, was not contextualized until earlier this year. After spending a week in January tailoring her wardrobe—she often alters her clothing as over the last four years she has purchased very few clothing items first-hand—she began understanding her failing paintings from years past, that had sat rolled up in the corners and closets of her studios, as textiles.
As she had already tried to salvage the paintings by segmenting and reassembling them using textile glue, she rolled them out and peeled apart the sections. She began folding and shaping them. Finding one of the forms reminiscent of a bicycle seat cover, she fastened its form using textile glue and steel components that she owned—such as bolts and nuts that she had previously spray-painted.
In 2026, she aims for 95%* of the materials she utilizes for visual artworks to be: materials that she purchased in or before 2025, purchased canvas trimmings, or repurposed found or contributed discards. She is contacting artists, associations, and businesses in Portugal that may be interested in selling canvas trimmings, or used canvas that would otherwise be discarded or go unused, to support this endeavor. send greetings and inquiries to contact@eliselovemc.com.