About Ellen…
My Art
“When we respond to Spirit with our bodies, our actions are prayers as much as our words ever are. What we do becomes prayer”
Angier Brock
My paintings are prayers celebrating the beauty and mystery of endings transforming into new beginnings.
Using a paintbrush or my hands, lines, drips, or gestures, initial outpourings of energy are spontaneous, emotional, and freeing. Stopping to step back and notice relationships opens space for a sensitive response. Rhythms of movement, rest, and response continue. The painting evolves in ways unimagined with every mark, color, or texture - hidden and exposed - meaningful. The aliveness in “how” each work is created is “what” I want to convey when it’s signed.
While an allusion to life’s cycles, the ambiguity of the painted space is intentional. And becomes a beauty and mystery of its own - an invitation. Come closer. Experience the painting. Engage your memory and imagination in ways unanticipated and beyond words.
My Story
No matter where you're raised, we experience innate imagination and desire to create. I grew up in Washington, a small town on the banks of the Pamlico River in Eastern North Carolina. Camellias blooming in winter. Intricate patterns naturally etched onto Cypress balls falling along the river shore. The feel of scratching a safety-pin into wooden windowsills. That was my cosmic call to live creatively.
My mother fanned this flame giving me an art box filled with colorful paint. My father suggested pursuing art in college. They honored this calling before
Receiving a BA from UNC-CH, and a Masters in Teaching from UVA’s Curry School, I eventually chose leaving careers in media sales and teaching to stay home when our first daughter was born.
Life as expected. Then it changed. Not an ending, but a new beginning.
Within a span of twenty-four months - my father died of cancer; our two daughters were born; I admitted I was powerless over the alcohol used to gloss bouts of depression and anxiety. God’s love gave me hope, transforming my chaos and confusion into promise and renewal. This grace gives me aliveness: the freedom to love, forgive, and create.
It was during this season that my desire to draw and paint reawakened, and 9/11 galvanized it. I nurture this call by spending time with God, continued formal study, and community with trusted artists.