History and education
Ellen, a California native was raised in Northern and Southern California, Chicago, Ill, Washington DC and Boston, Mass.
Ellen graduated from an artsy hippy, free thinking private high School
in downtown DC, The Hawthorne School, in 1974, and returned to California soon after to receive her BA in Art from California State University at Sacramento in1979.
Ellen immediately continued to pursue her Fine Art education towards an MA in painting and Performance Art and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1980-81.
Inspirations
Influenced by many well known mid century fine Artists such as Jackson Pollack, Kandinski, Chagall, Helen Frankenthaler, Franz Kline, Rothko, Diebencorn, William Willey, Steven Kaltenbach, Gerhard Richter, Judy Chicago, ,as well as famous textile artist Douglas Ram Samuj, Ellen perused her artistic career after graduation when she moved to Oregon in 1986.
Business Venture
Ellen became interested in painting cloth with dyes rather then paint on canvas and decided it was to be worn rather then on the wall. She designed the “EGO Art to wear collection “for high end Boutique’s in 1996- present under the “EGO Originals “label and marketed the collection during Fashion Week in NYC for a span of 12 years, spring /summer, fall /winter at The Pacific Designer Collection and Atelier designer’s shows in Times Square.
The EGO label continues to sell to VIP women nationwide in well known shops and galleries including Bergdorf Goodman, Bellagio Art to -wear, Ann Ahn, NYC, Harari, Beverly Hills, Lisa Todd, Boca Raton, All items in the collection are originals and designed by Ellen and sewn in EGO’s Atelier in Bend, Oregon where she continues to reside during the Summer.
Current paintings
Today Ellen circles back to her first love of painting on Canvas in her studio in Ft Lauderdale, Florida for the winter. At this time circles seem to be her metaphor for change and returning to her beginning
She calls this series of painting’s “The Circle Game” a song by Joni Mitchell.
