Elizabeth Sutton grew up surrounded by art and artists. Her mother is a graphic designer and her father is a retired art professor.

As a child she would "help" her father teach his art students at Rose State College in Oklahoma.

"Ever since I was little, I can remember going to his classes-when I was two or three-and sitting at the potter's wheel and making my little clay pots," she says.

After class, she would watch her parents paint, draw, photograph and throw pottery at home.

It's little surprise then, that Sutton, who now exhibits at the Artisan Cooperative Gallery in Green Bank, is an artist of many talents herself.

Her display space showcases her own photography, drawings and captivating moss gardens.

Sutton uses a variety of vessels to create miniature green worlds of moss, from apothecary bottles to canning jars. Many are adorned with rocks, shells, tiny clay pots or ceramic animals to transform them into what she describes as "fairy-inspired" creations.

In part, Sutton says her moss gardens are also inspired by her mother's prowess as a botanist.

"My mom is a plant lover," Sutton says. "She can grow anything. She really was the one who got me into wanting to grow something."

"I'm not great at growing everything, but I found that I was really good at these moss gardens, because you don't have to do much to them," she continues. "They thrive on being left alone and forgotten."

While she has been making art as long as she can remember, Sutton says she only began creating her moss gardens after relocating to Arbovale about three years ago.

"I think it's the area, because it's so diverse here in wildlife and wild plants," she says. "I had never thought about doing them before moving here."

Working with living materials has been a challenge. Sutton admits she's still learning about the various local species and types of mosses.

"It's great when my mom comes here to visit from Kentucky," she says, "because she teaches me about club mosses and reindeer moss and different kinds of algae that are not really mosses but grow on rocks and near waterfalls."

Sutton says she has learned that some mosses don't transition well or survive when broken up and separated from their woodland environment.

"There are certain mosses that grow really well in any environment though," she adds.

In most cases, Sutton says she waits a month or so to make sure a moss garden will be viable before bringing it into the gallery. Once they do get established, Sutton says they can last for years. A few that she created when she first moved to Pocahontas County are still thriving nearly three years later.

In addition to being a moss gardener, Sutton draws and takes photographs of found objects. She focuses her camera lens on the abandoned, the discarded and the ephemeral.

"I tend to like things that people don't necessarily see as being beautiful," she says. "Anyone could see that a flower is beautiful, but can they see the beauty in a rusty piece of metal or an abandoned house? I try to find those things, capture what I think is beautiful about it, and hopefully others will see the same thing."

While Sutton sometimes sets out to find a particular subject to photograph, more often than not, she finds images in an almost accidental fashion.

"When I'm driving anywhere-to work or home from somewhere-and I see something, I'll stop," Sutton says. "I go looking for things sometimes, but I like catching it."

Alongside her moss gardens, drawings and photographs, Sutton displays her original jewelry at the co-op. Jewelry-making brings back childhood memories for Sutton. As a young girl, Sutton says she would travel with her father to fairs and festivals and make jewelry to sell alongside her father's artwork.

Sutton says the solitude and distance from shopping that comes with living in Pocahontas County has helped her rediscover jewelry making as something she enjoys.

She works primarily with glass beads and metal, taking inspiration from vintage pieces from the 1940s and the Victorian era.

"I like finding vintage pieces and trying to recreate something similar," she says, "or using the vintage pieces to make something new."

Down the road, Sutton says she wants to open her own gallery space and become a more active part of the community of artists in Pocahontas County who are teaching.

"We have a great community of artists who are really into helping kids now, and I'd like to be a part of that," she says.

For now all of Sutton's creations-moss gardens, drawings, photographs and jewelry-can be found in her space at the Pocahontas County Artisan's Cooperative Gallery in Green Bank. She also plans to make her work available at Durbin's Whistle Stop Cafe and at the Shay store at Cass Scenic Railroad State Park.