Liz DeVries
Bio
Member Elizabeth Devries came to Key West in 1980 as a “27-year-old going on 17.” She had traveled through Morocco and worked in a Danish fish processing plant, but she had never held a hammer. That changed where, within 10 days of arriving in Key West, she started a career that would make her a sought after shutter restorer and incidentally, an award winning artist. She first came up with the idea to build the first of her diorama-like boxes after seeing a piece of wood that looked like a book. She began shaping different colored shutter blades to recreate volumes and shelves in a library scene. Most of her nearly 100 boxes since she began making them in 1995 have been of Key West landmarks such as the M&M Laundry, the Southernmost Point and even an anatomically detailed depiction of a Duval Street strip club. Elizabeth has worked on shutters all over Old Town and though she would love to do her art full time, the pieces do not support her business. When asked what she would do if she were ever able to finish repairing all the shutters in Key West, Elizabeth replies with a laugh that she would do them all again.
Portfolio
