Elizabeth is the progeny of a whimsical antique collector father and a creative whirlwind mother who excelled at baking, sewing and hand-crafting. As a child, when she wasn't baking and creating at the kitchen table, she was hunting for treasures. Preoccupied by her visual sense, Elizabeth would daydream how to reinvent the bulletin board during class, ponder better colors for her teacher's dress during attendance, and avoid recess to stay inside with the paints and crayons. She graduated from RISD with a BFA, which included a formative year working at a 16th century Italian palazzetto in Rome. She learned the importance of balance: to work hard yet take time to enjoy life, which brings inspiration. Elizabeth now lives in Brooklyn, still hunting for treasures and making wonderful creations at her kitchen table.

Question and Answer with Elizabeth MacLennan:

Youthful influences: Anything that seemed to need something else to make it more interesting. I would draw on, paint on or alter anything in my path that seemed lacking.

Favorite color: My heart has always belonged to black; it's so rich and grounding. I love color as well, and am currently taking a color theory class. I'm drawn to colors that are a bit shifty -- is it lilac or grey? pink or red? -- and I'm fascinated by colors that change easily depending on their surroundings. I'm currently preoccupied with stripes.

Collection: Old photos of strangers and landscapes

Trend you miss: Mix tapes and handwritten letters

Design inspiration: The Wiener Werkstätte, Japanese design and 1960s New Wave

Influential movies: I was obsessed by The Wizard of Oz as a child. Now I am inspired by Goddard's Band of Outsiders, Sofia Coppola's films because I find them more like paintings than movies, and Michel Gondry with his wild imaginative stories and sets.

Prized possession: A giant goose lamp that was my nightlight as a child. Photographs of family and friends (which make unexpected appearances in my work)

Hobby: I love to paint.

Motto: Follow your curiosity and always roam with a hungry heart.

On the nightstand: a constant pile of books and magazines, including the latest issue of Vanity Fair, a painting book of some sort and a novel. Right now I'm reading The White Album by Joan Didion.