Painting her own odds

Rachel Elizalde’s mother was a watercolor painter.

“My mom was a painter. She was a watercolor painter, and so I assume that’s where I get it from,” said Elizalde.

After she lost her mother, sitting in the floor of her abusive foster parent’s home, painting with nail polish, she said she knew she wanted to be a painter.

“When I was a kid, I would be stuck in a room because I was abused by the foster parents,” she said. “But what they would do is, they gave me nail polish because they knew I wanted to do art, and so they would let me sit there for hours and hours, and I wouldn’t eat or anything, and I would just do art, and I would always say, I want to be a painter.”

While she deviated from painting, Elizalde was always an artist. She spent some time in front of the camera, modeling through her teens. Later, for college, she would major in photography.

Elizalde didn’t spend much of her childhood in one place, moving from California to Oklahoma, ending her high school career in Arizona. Her adult life has been a mix of Arizona, California, and finally coming home to Oklahoma.

“I always dreamed of coming back. And a lot of people ask me, Why are you back in Oklahoma? It’s because this is, this is home to me,” she said. “This is my comfort zone, and I know I have so many close friends here. So it’s just home.”

She’ll be here for at least the foreseeable future, as Studio Azul, Elizalde’s art studio, sets to open Saturday, her 40th birthday.

There will be a ceremony at noon to commemorate the grand opening at 5119 Cache Road Saturday. Elizalde said if there is inclement weather, activities will be Sunday.

Elizalde wanted to start the studio to give back to the foster care community of Lawton.

“I’ve always wanted to do something for the kids, for the youth. Specifically, teenagers, you know, 12 and up, because I feel like they have less guidance,” she said. “Especially if they’re put into foster care in the system at that age, they’re kind of left to kind of just live it out until they age out, and then they’re let go. And you know, statistically, they’re supposed to be homeless, in prison, or dead.”

Now, despite it all, Elizalde is opening the place she needed as a girl. A place where she and others can laugh, create, and paint the odds in their own favor.

Studio Azul’s grand opening will also include live music, food trucks, and other fun activities for the family.