About Elizabeth Kate Shelton:
There have been artists on both sides of my family with careers ranging from courtroom artist *1/ illustrator for films *2, fashion illustrator, muralist to art director, so it seemed natural to pursue the arts as a way of life. I followed my father in his leap from muralist to working in theatre, film and television. My mother, Blossom Shelton, continued to pursue printmaking *3 at The Art Students League throughout her life.
After assisting my father on murals (and modeling for them*4), I earned a B.F.A. in Theatre Design from SUNY Purchase, NY and began my professional life as costume shopper for The New York Shakespeare Festival under Milo Morrow in Joseph Papp's heyday followed by two seasons at The Metropolitan Opera's costume department under Peter J. Hall.
In the years since, I've had the chance to work in various capacities across the country in projects ranging from big period feature films ("The Cotton Club", "The Ice Storm", "The Ciderhouse Rules"), television series of every sort, to small budget independent films where the challenge is to delineate a sense of character and give the film "a look" while juggling minimal budgets.
My aim is to continue to pursue the more interesting projects be they high or low budget in film, theatre, television and the commercial world.
*1 One of my Great Uncle Gene Widhoff's sketches from the trial of Charles Manson during his time as NBC's courtroom artist
*2 Gene's lobby card painting for "Follow The Fleet" (1936) from his days at RKO Radio Pictures (where he was credited simply as "Widhoff")
*3 Print by Blossom L. Shelton
*4 The Frieze on my homepage is a childhood portrait in The Pierre Hotel's Garden Foyer mural, by Richard T. Shelton.
