Born in NY, Ellen was raised in SC, progressively moving north and west until arriving in Seattle in 1989. Her academic training in art and art history (BA University of NC) and urbanism (MA University of Maryland) along with a keen interest in the role of artists in society shaped her work and inspired her to use her art in civic life. She views her art as a way to marry her passion for visual expression with her commitment to helping to build a more just society. In her early career, she balanced her work as an artist while serving as Assistant Director of Dance at NEA, director of the Colorado Arts Council and Seattle Arts Commission. Since 1993, she has devoted herself fulltime to her art, creating site-specific permanent and temporary installations, artist books, and photo-based works. Much of her work is deeply embedded in place, interweaving landscape, memory and history. Her public art is sited throughout the PNW and her artworks are in university and museum collections across the US, including Museum of NW Art, Hallie Ford Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, NY Public Library Spencer Collection, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Cynthia Sears Artist Book Collection, Pacific NW Photographers Archive, Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. She has been awarded grants by 4Culture and the Seattle Office of Art and Culture and artist residencies at Ucross, Playa, Brush Creek Arts Foundation, Centrum, and the Northwest Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy.