About Elizabeth

Transitions

Living in Canada as an immigrant settler for the past thirty years, I have navigated the unfamiliar landscape of disruption often enough to become comfortable with the discomfort of change.  Continuously shifting my perspective to notice the positive in the negative helped shape my growth mindset and guided me through subsequent career transitions. Settling in a new country far from family, adjusting to a different culture, climate and social system, changing careers, and later starting a space branding business with original fine art photography while raising my two daughters, have all served to enhance my resiliency and self-leadership.

Leadership

Nurturing my self-efficacy supported my entrepreneurial spirit in becoming a business owner, providing business to business services (Art for Business service from 2015 – 2021) in an often competitive art and design field. A belief that it is never too late for a new profession inspired me to pursue my mid-life visual arts career and become a successful recipient of the Ontario Arts Council grants. Engagement in community arts led me to serve as a Board Director at the Kingston Arts Council and contribute to the organization’s Strategic Plan during the pandemic. As a lifelong learner I have advocated for professional development opportunities for creative entrepreneurs and artists through my volunteering activity at the municipal level. To be open to learning is to be open to possibilities which leads us to live more meaningful lives.

Balance

Amidst the successes, I have experienced burnout and overwhelm and learned to pace myself over the years. Investing in mindfulness meditation and a mindful way of living and working, I learnt to pause, reflect and embrace my vulnerability to discover who I am and more importantly who I can be. Being mindful has connected me cognitively, somatically and intuitively to myself and and taught me that what slows you down can also heal, nurture, and inform you on how to create a work-life balance. It is a choice we can make to holistically support ourselves to do even better.

Culture

From my extensive travels and living experiences in three different countries (India, The Netherlands and Canada), and fluency in four languages and a healthy curiosity to learn I have had the scope to improve my cultural intelligence.  My global outlook welcomes engagement with people of all races, color, ethnicity, religion, orientation, and identity. I grew up in India, an ancient land where unity in diversity was a daily experience. I live in Canada, a new nation of immigrants and indigenous peoples, where cultural integration and a responsibility to honour truth and reconciliation gives rise to possibilities of cultural awareness. Culture is a learned set of values, beliefs and traditions. In that awareness there is hope that we can continue to improve our cross-cultural consciousness and notice our similarities more than the differences. As a result we will hopefully create cultures of belonging.