Pilot Point – Just north of the Metroplex, you’ll find Pilot Point. In the spring this small community is known for tulips but in the fall, you’ll find something a little more frightening, yet really whimsical. “No one can figure out what we’re doing,” said Elizabeth Jones.
Elizabeth is originally from Arizona but she’s called Pilot Point home since the 90’s. Around here, she’s known as Lizzy Gator. “Well, it was a nickname that was given to me when I was about 16-years-old,” said Lizzy. “It was a good friend of the family that was good friends with Liberace. And so he was very eccentric and so he came up with the name. It was just a token of love.”
To say Lizzy is eclectic might not be descriptive enough. She’s outlandish, flamboyant, and striking. “I have a big passion for fashion, so yeah, anything funky.”
Lizzy is the main character at her complex simply known as LizzyGator. “When I was a younger girl and they said that rocks were a girl’s best friend, I didn’t realize they were talking about diamonds, so that’s why I have rocks everywhere,” said Lizzy . “I live in a bubble. We live in a bubble here and it’s magical. It’s whimsical and there’s healing. I think it brings healing to people. Who doesn’t love something kooky and wacky and quirky?”
Her unique piece of property is a place to have events, get married, spend the night, or just have a howling good time during Halloween. But ghosts and goblins and getting all glamoured up aren’t the only reasons for joy during the season. “So actually my birthday is on Halloween,” said Lizzy. “It is, it is. So I celebrate it all month. Thanks, Mom.”
With her husband Chris by her side, Lizzy has created this crazy place centered around a chapel that looks like Beetlejuice might be hanging around it. “The Twisted Little Chapel,” said Lizzy. “Just to push ourselves to the limit and see what we could do, challenge ourselves during the troubled time.”
That troubled time was in 2020, when we all got to work from home for a little while. “The honeymoon suite was finished a week before the country got shut down,” said Lizzy. “So then instead of falling into depression, what to do, we decided to build a chapel. It was our baby during COVID. We were in twisted times, and so we decided to build a Twisted Chapel. It just made sense to me.”
The architectural oddity has all sorts of interesting angles and it wasn’t easy to build. “Nothing is really normal angles, there’s a lot of curves,” said Lizzy. “We like to push ourselves to see what we can do as artists and the chapel has been our biggest challenge, for sure. We try to use as much reclaimed materials as possible as well on top of it, which makes it trickier sometimes. You got to try to make pieces fit. But we got very lucky that they all worked.”
As far as the community of Pilot Point goes, they’ve embraced Lizzie’s project with open arms. “Well, they love it,” explained Lizzy. “So far so good. The city loves it. The town loves it, yeah. Pilot Point is really about the arts, so we really embrace the arts in Pilot Point. So there’s art everywhere and we’re trying to go more in that direction and so it fits.”
Despite her passion for panache, Lizzy does this so folks who want to be as flamboyant and flashy as she is can do the same. “I think art brings healing to people in a different way, especially when it’s so whimsical and that people have the freedom to express themselves,” said Lizzy “You can dress how you want, you can be what you want. You can express yourself like you want. And so, I think there’s healing in that way. I find it, I hear it. So I’m thrilled that we can just be that tiny little piece of love that is spread.”