Ella Nilsson is an Art of Austin artist!
Introducing Ella!
AoA – How long have you been in Austin and how did you find your way here?
Ella – I moved to Austin in 2007. I grew up mostly in northern New Jersey, living in Iran for a couple years as my father is Persian. In 2004, I moved to Phoenix, AZ and by 2007 I was pretty miserable. I was offered a job in Austin and accepted sight unseen. I figured why not be miserable with different scenery. When I moved here I felt like this is where I should have been my whole life! Needless to say, I am no longer miserable and even say “y’all” on occasion to soften my jerseyness.
AoA – When did you realize that you were an artist?
Ella – I’ve been working on artwork pretty much my whole life, as both my parents are artists. In college I tried to major in something else – criminal justice/pre-law – but then realized with *just* a couple 18 credit semesters I could fit in an art major as well. Post college, I worked on artwork, either for myself, friends, commissions or murals over the years. It wasn’t until 2010 until I had a formal art show and revisited the style I had begun to develop. The artist community in Austin was so welcoming and encouraging, so I just kept going.
AoA – Where do you derive inspiration from?
Ella – My biggest source of inspiration is music! Superficially visual arts and music may seem really different, but all the elements of composition (pun intended!) are quite similar. The mood, the atmosphere, the delivery, the context, and lyrics can all be transferred from auditory to visual things. Being a visual person, I often find myself marvelling at lyrics, with word choice and cleverness being my two favorite things. Nerd alert: I also listen to isolated versions of my favorite songs with drums or vocals only. Mayhaps this is why I married a musician!
My other source of inspiration is people. I’m fascinated when I hear someone’s story, how they got to where they are. In addition, people inspire me quite literally, since a lot of my work is figurative. Anatomy classes in college were riveting! I hope when I pester x-ray techs and acupuncturists they know I’m coming from a place of genuine curiosity.
AoA – Can you speak to your art training?
Ella – My high school had a ton of art electives and I was fortunate enough to major in art in college. Aside from formal training, the biggest key (and maybe the boring answer) is practice. Sometimes I look back on work from 10, even 20 years ago and reflect that I can’t believe I thought it was decent at the time. Conversely, sometimes I look back on old works and think “hey, that’s pretty ok!” Sometimes I even think, “Wow, I can’t believe I did that!” Art is a practice and the journey is just as much fun and rewarding as the destination. The trick is looking at it through that lens and not festering in frustration for too long.
AoA – Can you tell us a little bit about what your work is concerned with?
Ella – A recurring theme for me is contrast, whether it be in imagery, light/dark, conscious/subconscious, inside/outside or even scale. I think this keeps coming up because I often feel misunderstood. Whether it be through someone questioning my adequacy or comprehension skills or validity, I often feel that the interpretation of me is not at all what I wanted or intended. I’ve learned, often the hard way, that it’s not your responsibility to take on what others dump on you – but to remain transparent, genuine and humble. I think my internal struggle with this conflict comes through in my work. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve said too much or been too literal in my work and it’s extra rewarding when those are the pieces that people connect with the most.
On the other hand, my way of softening myself or difficult situations, has always been humor, which also manages to sneak its way into my art as well. I identify with the Oscar Wilde quote, “life is far too important to be taken too seriously.” I’ve been working on this mini-series with quotes from the movie The Departed lately; even though there’s some heavy moments, some of the lines are downright hilarious. I did a one-a-day-ish series a couple month back on TV show The Wire. Art doesn’t have to be so high brow.
AoA – Can you talk a little about your creative processes?
Ella – The best ideas come to me when I’m doing something monotonous, like driving. I keep a running list of ideas in my phone. There’s no order in how I work through them; some shout louder than others depending on the day.
I like to work in a series as it gives me parameters to fully work through a concept and helps me make decisions. I like to think of it like songs on an album. Some albums are like a jam band and go on for years, others are like pop albums and over in a month. Restrictions can sometimes be a good thing as it forces you to be more creative in the result.
While I’m working, I usually listen to music and gravitate towards certain albums/catalogs that tend to reflect the imagery I’m creating. For example, if I’m painting something dark my favorites are Arctic Monkeys “Humbug” or Queens of the Stone Age “…like Clockwork” If i’m trying to get inside my head, I like to listen to anything by The Last Shadow Puppets or Arcade Fire’s “The suburbs.” If I don’t know where I’m going with something I will just run through a whole catalog of a band. I try to get into this focus where I’m not really thinking much of anything just dialed into the process, hence maybe the musical cues.
I’m currently working on a few different series:
- Sea Legs is about combining the female form and various seaworthy vessels, all while playing with scale.
- Shadows or even better Shady Ladies, is about the interaction of cast shadows from hands and the distortion across the face.
- The Departed series is as if the movie was a comic book (the OG meme) with the scene, quotes and speech bubbles.
AoA – What is your preferred medium?
Ella – I prefer to paint, but that wasn’t always the case. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and my hands ache after working on a long sustained drawing. I approach painting like I would a drawing and that comes through in some of my shading and line work – more graphic than painterly. Additionally, working on wood, I can treat that like pen and ink; if you put a line down you’re stuck with it. There’s no painting it back to wood like how you can paint over paint (and over and over…) on canvas. I want to leave some of the wood exposed, so if there’s a particularly interesting part of the grain, I can plan the shading/composition around it. The smoothness of wood lends itself to my style, sometimes I feel like I’m fighting with the texture of the canvas to perfect my lines.
AoA – Who are some artists that you look to?
Ella – Roy Lichtenstein is a favorite and that’s a level of simplicity I’m always striving for. Sometimes you can show the viewer more with less, ie a single line or solid black shading. I recently went to the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and really like his ink blotting process. Banksy is great at cleverness and provoking thought – even to the point of being uncomfortable. My mom, Karen is a fabulous artist and she inspires me even though our styles/approaches are quite different. She is very painterly and works predominantly in oil paints, but can still build so much depth and structure through meticulous blending. There are also a plethora of wonderful artists in Austin – it truly is bustling community here!
AoA – If you could own 1 piece from a living artist, who would it be?
Ella – Tough question! I really like Swoon’s work, especially her linoleum cuts!
AoA – Big question. What do you feel the role of art is in the world?
Ella – I think the point of art is to inspire. That inspiration can take many different forms – inspire you to look, inspire you to look inside yourself, inspire you to think or examine something in a different way, or inspire you to laugh! Sometimes it can be deep and thought provoking or sometimes it can be silly and something you like to look at. It can remind you of a specific place or time and be a tangible representation of a memory or emotion. It can look many different ways and in many different styles, be found or created. Regardless of what it looks like, the best art always has a soul.
AoA – What else do you enjoy besides making art?
Ella – I suppose I’ve covered music already! I like home improvement projects and playing with power tools (hence the handy bitches moniker). Often I joke that interior design is the only good 3-D I can do, as I’m not much of a sculptress. I play in a competitive skee-ball league and most recently was chosen to be on the Austin national team (yes, that’s real). I love learning and watch a lot of PBS, specifically Nova, Nature and Frontline. Law & Order is another favorite TV show. I could tell you more than you ever wanted to know about commercial aviation. Pretty sure I was an NTSB crash site investigator in a different life. I like goofing around with my husband and friends, exploring locally or abroad, the NY Mets, and cats.
AoA – Where can we find your work? Do you have any shows planned for the future?
Ella – I show my work regularly at Austin Art Garage and pop-up shows with a lady gang of bad-ass artists, ATXGals. For October, I’m the artist-in-residence at Nina Berenato at the domain and have a whole wall of paintings there. Highly recommend checking out her fab creations too – who doesn’t love art you can wear! For November, I’ll be showing for East Austin Studio Tour at The Cathedral, the new home of ATX Gals. Virtually, I’m on instagram @handybitches and the portfolio of my artwork is handybitches.com. Webshop coming soon!
AoA – Any final advice for all the artists reading out there?
Ella – Stick with it! If you want to improve, never stop learning and be open to trying to things. It’s as much about the journey as it is about your creation. Don’t take constructive criticism personally and use it as an opportunity to grow. Don’t get discouraged, time takes time, as my mom always says! Be genuine and authentic – after all you’re the only “you” out there.
Connect with Ella!
