Liz Saunders is a Canadian painter and sculptor who draws on her experience of living with chronic illness to create work that explores parallels between the human body and various systems that we depend on in modern life but tend to take for granted. With a background in self-taught portraiture, she pursued her BFA at Emily Carr University with the intention of studying painting, but by year 2 of her studies chronic pain interrupted this endeavour and led her to focus on sculpture instead. Here, she began exploring invisible systems that we depend on but rarely consider while going about our day; from the hidden networks of circuitry which line the underbelly of our walls and enable us to light up a room at the flick of a switch, to the intricate foundation of roots below our feet which give life to the forests through which we wander. Having graduated from Emily Carr in 2017, then moving from her hometown of Vancouver to Victoria in 2023, her love of painting found itself revitalized first through capturing plein-air landscapes, then in the production of an ongoing series exploring yet another crucial system; public transit. ‘Commuter’s Paradise’ has become a series devoted to the microcosm of culture, colour and sound found on public transit, allowing the viewer a new appreciation for such a vitally important system of any thriving metropolis. Liz’s sculptures have been exhibited throughout the West Coast, including at TED X ECUAD in 2018, and her paintings may be found in collections across Canada.