Welcome to my website!
I'm an artist/illustrator who draws on the go, facilitating and participating in
unique interactive experiences and community engagement.
ART/LIFE UPDATES (Fall)2023
An unexpected seasonal change was that the afterschool could not renew our annual contract, but I have continued working with the non-profit Street Lab! We had some fun community events for Halloween, and weekly WRITE activity.
Perfectly timed for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and related projects in my creative cycle.
ART/LIFE UPDATES (Spring)2023
In broad strokes, here's what's happening...
Since the Fall 2021, I started my main (steady part-time) job as afterschool art instructor. This work combines both my art specialty and experience with kids.
It also fits well into my situation overall: close to my art studio workspace,
allows pockets of time + added inspiration for creative endeavors. While not a consistent living, it has provided much-needed stability in an enjoyable setting.
Weekends & summers I work with non-profit arts organizations and event gigs. Enjoy being outdoors, doing interesting things, but tough piecing it all together.
Still taking on freelance work and art commissions, for income and collaboration, though my ideal scenario would be receiving art grants or independent funding to tackle interesting personal/communal projects, sharing in exhibits and online.
(See my Support page for ways you can help too!)
At several recent events, I combined art forms by presenting poetry on stage, and/or live-sketching in response to the other performers, along with creative lettering of their poems and songs. This included being the official sketch artist at a fundraising concert for a humanitarian non-profit organization.
Looking forward to Open Studios in May, and aim to paint the city this summer.
Lots more to say on that - but even keeping this website up to date is its own special project. Keep checking back for more exciting activities...
- Ellen Stedfeld
(During the COVID pandemic, I first created pages for these overall updates,
though much has changed since then. In that time, there were a lot of struggles, but I tried to keep a positive and upbeat outlook. You can still read them here.)