How One Woman Inspires Evangelization through Beauty: GIVEN Alumna Elisa Torres

Bishop Robert Barron once said, “Beauty is the arrowhead of evangelization, the point with which the evangelist pierces the minds and hearts of those he evangelizes.” GIVEN ’22 alumna Elisa Torres has a similar mindset as she describes herself as a “missionary of beauty.” She shares, “I consider myself a missionary of beauty. I am an artist, art teacher, and business owner. All of this overflows from my love of beauty and faith.” By day, Elisa is an art teacher at Oakcrest School in Vienna, Virginia – a Catholic all-girls school for grades 6-12. In her private time, Elisa runs an art small-business called “From the Garden Designs.” The GIVEN Institute helped Elisa discern how God calls her to use her artistic talents to glorify Him and how this love for beauty can be both a transcendental experience, but also a practical application to everyday life. 

Elisa graduated from Temple University with a major in Art Education and a minor in Art History. This time learning about both the technical aspects of teaching art as well as the roots of classic art itself, Elisa gained a robust understanding of art’s importance in society. Elisa explains:

“I decided to explore the arts in college, and I had my eyes set on spending as much time as possible studying classical art in college in Rome. I had never been out of the country, but I was captivated by the city that was home to so many of the greatest artists in human history. I was entranced by the beauty that God gifted the world, and I wanted to dive in head first.”

After college graduation, Elisa served as a FOCUS Missionary at Stony Brook University on Long Island from 2020-2022. Then, in the summer of 2022, Elisa participated at the GIVEN Forum at Neumann University in Philadelphia, PA. During this period, she wrestled with her internal tension between creating classic oil paintings depicting sacred imagery versus delving into design for everyday products. She elaborates, “My GIVEN action plan had to do with bringing beauty into the world in a more accessible way. I wanted this to be through intentionally Catholic artwork, but was unsure of how that would come to be.” With the guidance from her GIVEN mentor, Sarah Maple, Elisa developed a concrete plan to channel her love of classic art into an approachable tool for evangelization. 

While Elisa had already been promoting and selling her artwork through Instagram and an online display portfolio, through the help of GIVEN, Elisa decided to merge her competing interests of art and small business into a single avenue. Elisa explains, “As the year [year of mentorship] unfolded, Sarah helped me to dream bigger and refine my craft. She encouraged me to continue to pursue classical drawing while focusing on my own journey as an artist, not simply the product. She also encouraged me to unapologetically bring together my love of art and my small shop.” Following this pivotal experience at the GIVEN Forum, Elisa experienced a revelatory moment while she was taking a summer course on classical drawing and painting at the Sacred Art School in Florence, Italy. She says:

“In the quiet of my room in Florence, I felt inspired to bring beauty into the world through practical products that make Catholic designs more present in everyday life. I have always loved journaling and speaking to God through writing, but have found it difficult to find prayer journals that turn my gaze towards beauty.”

This moment of epiphany led to the creation of Elisa’s first journal – The Our Lady of Guadalupe journal. Since the launch of this first product, Elisa has sold nearly one thousand notebooks. Ignited by this momentum, Elisa plans to create more prayer journals, “I desire to continue to grow my collection of practical, beautiful notebooks. I want to continue to bring images of Our Lady and symbols of the faith into coffee shops, classrooms, chapels, homes, and everyday life.” The inspiration for the name of Elisa’s small business, “From the Garden Designs” came from meditation in prayer where she noticed the significance of garden scenes in sacred scripture:

“Each of our stories begin in the garden. Not only that, but there is garden imagery woven throughout scripture. We begin the story of creation with the Garden of Eden, we enter into Christ’s passion through the Agony in the Garden, and our Lord meets Mary Magdalene at the garden outside of His tomb after the Resurrection. In my personal prayer, Our Lord has often revealed Himself as the gardener of my heart. I see my heart as a garden composed of many parts, and Jesus is constantly tending this sacred place.”

Indeed, Elisa’s experiences at GIVEN and at the Sacred Art School certainly bore fruit in her own “spiritual garden.” Later on, Sarah encouraged Elisa to connect with Dony MacManus – the founder of the Sacred Art School. Through this connection, Dony invited Elisa to become an apprentice for his art class in Washington, DC. Additionally, Elisa met fellow GIVEN alumna, Katie Weiss, who is an artist and the founder of her sacred art ministry, Behold Visio Divina. Katie sent Elisa a job opening for an art teacher at the Oakrest School, where Elisa was offered the job and now currently works. 

The GIVEN Institute helped Elisa find a way to embrace her gifts as both a classical painter and designer. Through this acceptance of these two loves, Elisa learned that she did not need to exclude one passion to pursue the other, instead she realized that God wanted her to fully explore her ideas and skills. Elisa reflects, “When I finally gave myself permission to be both a classical painter and a designer, my action plan really flourished. Now, I see all of these projects as ways that God wants me to bring beauty into the world, whether that be through oil paintings or intentionally designed prayer notebooks.” To view Elisa’s artwork and journal collection, visit her website,“From the Garden Designs.”