Ellen Jewett was born in Markham Ontario, Canada and raised among snails. She took to shaping three dimensional forms naturally and obsessively at a young age. To Ellen, sculpting has always been about life; biological narratives, emotions, movement, balance and observations about life’s subtleties and overtures. Her aesthetic ranges from the hyper-real, to the surreal,fantastic, and the grotesque.
Ellen’s creative process is truly her own, she enjoys making and engineering original material combinations to suit her needs. She has always worked by the principle that materials should conform to her vision, rather than confine her vision to the limits of a material. It is in this way that she produces mixed media sculptures that achieve an otherworldly quality.
When working in her studio Ellen enjoys the company of her vast menagerie of ‘second-hand’ animals, drinking heroic quantities of coffee and listening to audio books, online university courses and, when she wants to give her brain a rest, the food network. Ellen finds this immersion in thought and ideas helps to create the depth and spontaneity in her sculptural narratives.
