Born in Boston, MA in 1965, Elise has lived in many cities in the U.S. as well as Quebec and France. After graduating from Skidmore College with a degree in Fine Arts, she moved to Paris where her formation in graphic design began. Returning to the States after three years, she eventually made her home in New York in 1992. Two years later, she left the design industry and returned to fine arts by attending the Lacoste School of the Arts in Provence where she eventually worked and met her husband.
Moving frequently had an impact on her work. She is a collector of discarded and second hand materials such as vintage sewing patterns, photographs and flotsam which dictate the direction and medium of each series. Since 2013, a collector of 1960’s snapshots, cut fragments become photocollages and sources for drawings and large scale paintings. 
Elise is an artist and an anaplastologist. She lives in Sunset Park, Brooklyn with her husband and son.