Meet Eliza Gill | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eliza Gill and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eliza, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I think takings risks is an absolute necessity for the growth of an artist. Without it the artist falls trap to the creature comforts this life has to offer or to the grind of maintaining those comforts. Art is uncomfortable, it’s constantly enduring growing pains and testing boundaries. You risk losing relationships with people and environments when you pursue expressing your artistic truth. When you commit to being an artist you offer who you were and who you are to the sacrificial alter of the audiences perception of you. Which is a very scary thing.
I risked everything to pursue my art. I left behind a high paying job in New York, in the middle of the pandemic, to move across the country. I only had the clothes on my back, my turtle, and a dream. This life requires me to take risks so I could fully live it. My grandfather used to gamble. He bet on horses and played the lotto religiously. I definitely inherited that gambling gene and up the stakes by gambling my entire life in the pursuit of artistic freedom.
Taking a chance and risking looking stupid has lead me to the most fulfilling artistic experiences. Risking failure is the biggest step an artist can take. Honestly it’s become my favorite part of this process and helped me transmute my anxieties into a hunger for a challenge. Because worst case scenario, I fail. Then it’s up to me as an artist to decide to get back up, learn from what went wrong, and get back in the ring. It isn’t over until you say it’s over and I won’t be saying that until I’m six feet in the ground.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Currently I’m in rehearsals for “Witch Hazel: An Anxiety Play” which will be premiering with the Hollywood Fringe Festival this June. I wrote Witch Hazel while I was in Berlin this past summer questioning who I was as a person and an artist. The story follows a 27 year old person living with a panic disorder. Instead of facing their problems they disassociate into the fantasy stories they loved as a child. As the pressure of reality starts to collapse those fantasies, she’s faced with the reality that she has no idea who she actually is.

As an actor I always gravitated towards characters who are far as humanly possible from myself. I saw it as a challenge to find a way to breathe life into somebody I could never be. However over the past few years I’ve discovered that approach had been keeping me from taking the risks necessary for my artistry to grow. With the guidance of The Lee Strasberg Institute I’ve been able to integrate who I am into characters not terribly far off from myself. Embracing the ugly and unrefined parts of myself has brought a brand new color into my work. The Method has given me the tools to touch the minds of people who previously would have never given me the time of day.

It has taken me the better part of a decade to be comfortable in my skin. My biggest challenge was learning to stop caring about others perceptions of me. Once I stopped fearing peoples opinions about my image I found a new freedom in my work. I discovered how to find flow in the discomfort and it’s made this entire process so exciting.

But I learned I’m not somebody who can evenly balance my work with an average life. In the documentary “Moonage Daydream” a young David Bowie talks about loving from afar. How he felt at that point in his artistic journey he didn’t have the room to be distracted by a romantic interest. More than a part of me feels that way right now. I’ve had to sacrifice relationships for the sake of focusing on what is most important to me in this phase of my career. It’s challenging and not glamorous by any stretch of the imagination but I’ve made peace with the fact that every sacrifice I am making now is leading me on an incredible journey. Life is beautiful and that beauty deserves to be exalted through an artistic lens.

Right now I’m in a place where I’m hungry to tell stories that make the overlooked feel seen. To make someone else with these experiences feel heard. In the long run I want this career to take me all over the world. I want to wander in parts unknown and share the human experience. My biggest hope for “Witch Hazel: An Anxiety Play” is that audiences leave feeling understood. If one person leaves that show and says “I thought I was alone with these feelings. It’s weird to see that I’m not”, then I have done my job.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If Monae visited me in our lords year of 2023 I would die. Let’s set the scene on a Sunday. So first we’re taking a morning stroll around the Silver Lake Reservoir to get our blood moving. Then we’d go to Constellations Coffee for a matcha and the most godlike lemon poppy seed muffins I have ever had in my life. Seriously those muffins can cure even the worst mood. After that we’d pop over to the Silver Lake Flea Market and dig through every $5 bin for the weirdest thrifts we could find. Maybe get a few records. Time for a late lunch, so we’d hop over to Kombu Sushi for their amazingly affordable happy hour. We’ve been walking around and are filled up with sushi so let’s go digest, maybe have a little snooze in Vista Hermosa Park.
Hop over to Los Feliz and have a fabulous dinner at Figaro Bistrot then dance it away for Abba Night at Short Stop.
For the rest of the week we’d hit some hikes. I love the Tippett Ranch Trail in Topanga Canyon State Park. There’s a giant rock that’s easy to climb where you can look over the entire valley. On a clear day you can see right to the ocean it’s truly magical. I love showing people that rock, it’s truly one of my favorite discoveries and it makes me really happy to see friends sharing the magic of that spot with new people!
After that hike we are clearly going to need to cool off. So we’ll flip a coin and go to one of Malibus beautiful beaches.
After a swim and some sun we’d go get dinner at Reel Inn. They have amazing crab cakes. Then if it’s still a cloudless night we’d go up to Point Dume and stargaze a bit.
Now for the big part of the adventure. Pack a cooler, a bathing suit, and sunscreen. This is a full day trip, we are driving north to the Sequoias National Forest. There’s a hot spring there, I don’t know the name I just know how to get there, where the river meets these hot springs and man you’re going to meet some of the weirdest people there. I say weirdest with the highest compliments. There’s people who soak for days preaching about medicinal properties, hikers who walked for days to get this soak, families with the smartest little kids, and an icy river fed by mountain run off. There’s wild cows and in the summer when the waters high enough you can cliff jump. We flip a coin and decide to spend the night in a nearby hotel (I love camping as concept but as a practice it’s just not for me, I have a Taurus Venus) but before we turn in we go to the hot springs and see the clearest night sky. I swear you’ll see the Milky Way.
After that adventure we head back to the city and finish it all out with a simple movie night. Maybe we’ll hike to the Hollywood Sign or go to the Melrose Trading Post to buy new art for my gallery wall. There’s so much to do but in this scenario I’m just really happy that my best friend is here with me in Los Angeles for a few days.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’m incredibly lucky to have been found by the people in my life. This journey had every opportunity to be a lonely one but community found me and despite my best efforts hasn’t left me to my own devices. Despite their anxieties about this path, my parents have always been in my corner. They deserve a medal for the sh*t I have put them through over the years. My best friend Monae has single handedly kept me sane during the most insane moments. She is my anam cara and I miss her even though we talk every day. My teachers and peers at The Lee Strasberg Institute have been a constant source of encouragement and made me feel comfortable to break every boundary within my art. For which I am eternally grateful.
My teacher Carlos Colunga has helped me developed into the artist I am today and continues to challenge me, fostering steady growth in my work.

There’s a list of friends from all over the world who have supported me, encouraged my art, and pushed me to be an overall better human being. I could write a book of praises for them and it still wouldn’t encapsulate the gratitude I feel.

Accepting love has always been a challenge for me and the lows of this past year has shown me that I don’t have any room to deny the fact that I am loved by some of this earths most incredible souls. Everything I create is for them and I am alive today because of their love.

Instagram: @witchhazelanxietyplay and @elizasnarrative

Image Credits
Crystal Reed-Stokes