DALLAS, TX – The majority of pros on tour didn't necessarily start out as full-time pickleballers.

From investment bankers to Reiki masters, players have a variety of unique backgrounds and side hustles that make America's fastest-growing sport incredibly diverse and interesting off the court as well.

Liz Truluck is an artist. 

“I graduated from Davidson College with a degree in studio art,” she explained. “I love geometric abstraction. I feel like it uses a different part of the brain to do that because you’re not thinking literally, you’re thinking in shapes and patterns.”

Truluck attributes her ability to see abstraction to her tennis-playing years. 

“I was always thinking about the angles and working them into a court, so it makes sense that I like geometric abstraction,” she shared. 

Truluck’s favorite medium to work with is paint, but not the kind you typically purchase at your local art supply store.

“I used to paint with natural materials and natural dyes. I would go out into the woods and find berries or flowers to create my own dye,” she said. “In my senior year of college, I did biodegradable art where I would go and scavenge for things in the forest and recreate sculptures and mixed media pieces.”

What made her start scavenging for these natural items for her art?

“I worked on a farm a couple of summers ago and I didn’t have any art materials with me, so I would pretty much go out and get leaves or berries and create art with that. Once, I went out and got blackberries and crab apples, mashed them down, and made dyes,” she explained. “I like going on hikes and walks. I would see these incredible colors and I thought that I could use these things in art. I love the experimentation and creativity it takes from being outside and seeing a lovely berry to making paint out of it.”

Lugging around a paint set and canvas isn't ideal during his pickleball travels, though, so Truluck started experimenting with digital art to keep her creative juices flowing. 

“I use Photoshop and I’ve been using a lot of pickleball-inspired photos like portraits, action photos of myself, or pictures of courts,” she mentioned. “I’ll take those images and overlay other images to create collages. It’s been very fun. My dream is actually to do a mural on a pickleball court.”

Though she’s not quite sure what she would paint, she insists that it would be something cheerful and bright.

I can't wait for mural reveal! Bringing her two passions together on the 20x44 will be special.

Click here to see more of Truluck’s portfolio.