It's been a busy spring!
We're so happy! Ellen's work has been accepted into three exhibits, and has won 2 prizes! See the details below.
"The Floor Remembers" is a slow-stitched work on tea-dyed linen. It imagines what a dance floor might look like if we could see the ghosts of all the feet that had danced on it over the years. It was accepted in to the In Motion: Making Art Dance exhibit at the Crooked Tree Arts Center in Petoskey Michigan, where it will be on view from May-September 2026. It was awarded 2nd Place in the exhibit!
Ellen and Karen Eckberg's latest collaboration, "Shared Habitat," was accepted into Art Prize 2026 in Grand Rapids. It will be our third visit to Art Prize, and our second year in the beautiful Atrium at Uccello's.
"Seasons" is a 4'x4' painted mandala which was accepted into the Petoskey (MI) Wheelway Art walk public art project. This project had a ribbon cutting on August 28. See below for more information and pictures!
Floral Mandala is a stitched piece using hand-spun silk and embroidery thread on cotton. It was created to be part of a fundraiser for the Green Bay Civic Symphony in February 2026, and was chosen as one of the top four pieces in the exhibit.
The City of Petoskey's Wheelway Art Walk opens
On August 28 2026, the City of Petoskey, MI unveiled the 20 mural pieces of its Wheelway Art Walk. All of the murals were painted by artists who lived in or had a connection to Emmet or Charlevoix counties. Because of my family's generations on Walloon Lake, I qualified. What an honor to be a part of this wonderful project!
We love collaborations!
In 2024, ceramicist Karen Eckberg and I started an ongoing artistic collaboration. Karen, a ceramicist, and I thought it would be fun to play with what ceramics (a medium which is hard and inflexible) and fiber (which is soft and inflexible) could do together. Our first collaboration, Triptych Aerie, consisted of three fanciful bird's nests. It won first place in the Art Garage's "Collaborations" exhibit, was accepted into the Grand Rapids international exhibition Art Prize, and was also accepted into the Wisconsin Visual Arts North Chapter Member show in 2025.
In 2025, we were joined by by a Green Bay sculptor, Naomi Moes. We chose to create a bust of the Greek Gorgon Medusa. Medusa was selected for ArtPrize 2025 and for the Wisconsin Visual Artists North Chapter Member Show in spring of 2026.
Our newest collaboration is called "Shared Habitat," and explores the relationship between humans and the plants, trees, birds, bees, butterflies, and other non-human creatures with whom we share the planet. This piece was accepted into ArtPrize 2026!
There is always a need for craftivism...
I love to participate in Craftivism projects. It's a tradition that has its roots in knitters who knitted code into scarves for soldiers in WWII, suffragists who embroidered their own protest banners, the AIDS quilt, and the infamous pussy hats worn during women's marches in 2017. This winter, I responded to a project which was created to help support people in Minneapolis who had been affected by the harsh activities surrounding the occupancy of the city by ICE agents. A knit shop in Minneapolis created a pattern for a hat based on the hats knit by Norwegians in the 1940s to protest the Nazi occupation. I ended up making 9 of these hats, and donated the proceeds to Minneapolis nonprofits working with students and teachers. They were dealing with students being afraid to come to school, having classrooms disrupted by ICE presence, and anxiety and low self esteem.
I wore my own hat proudly on No Kings Day, March 28 2026.
