I am an artist because it is in my nature to be so. A cat hunts, a bird flies—I make stuff. Just can’t help it.

My work has three strands—fiber, watercolors, and costumes. The strands are interlaced by my love of the natural world.

Fiber

My affinity for fiber began in childhood, and since the mid 70’s I have been a designer/craftswoman of one-of-a-kind clothing and other works in fiber. My work has been sold in many stores and galleries throughout the US, and is now seen at Mobilia gallery in Cambridge, MA.

I like to tell stories. In a way my fiber work is about telling stories. Many time they are stories that attempt to translate a particular piece of the natural world—the habits of insects, reptiles, and amphibians; the multifarious forms of plants; and the small but miraculous one-time phenomena that occur every moment around us. The difficult problem of the translation of the exact textures and colors of the natural moment into an image made of fiber is fascinating to me. In my jackets, I am reporting on some of the daily phenomena that I have witnessed in the world around me—butterflies in the mist, the surprising beauty of a spider’s web, light and shadow in a field, the lively round of life and death in the pond.

I start with a line—a piece of thread, and loop it, dye it, layer it into a sculptural form that people can wear. To me that is a satisfactory transformation.

In my miniature embroidered pictures, I am crawling over the same territory that I explore in my jackets, but at very close range. Dense layers of stitches describe dramatic moments in the lives of some of the smaller inhabitants of the beautiful world around us.

Watercolors

For the last 30+ years I have been a fairly serious Sunday and vacation painter of landscapes in watercolor, but I have never had an easy time dealing with the local landscape. What I liked to paint were expanses of sea, sky or mountains. In northwest Connecticut we are surrounded by a beautiful but complicated landscape, full of masses of vegetation. In 2004, I decide I should conquer my fear of the local landscape and so set myself the task of making a painting a day in and around my home in Cornwall. I work plein air—outdoors in all but the most extreme weather.

For me, painting has become a form of meditation, and hour in the day when I have to concentrate on one thing and one thing only. It is literally impossible to multitask while painting! My daily efforts have also been a form of exercise—visual push ups. I find that after these years of observation I am more aware of daily, even hourly changes in the light and color of my surroundings.

Masks And Costumes

Since 1982 I have been the designer and maker of masks, costumes and sets for the Grumbling Gryphons Traveling Children’s Theater. The Grumbling Gryphons perform at schools, festivals and other public venues throughout the country, engaging thousands of children in the delights of participatory theater. In 2003 we received the Connecticut Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

In addition to my work with the Gryphons I have designed masks and costumes for Faustwork/Rob Faust, Masque/Larry Hunt, and Lotte Goslar. I have also taught a myriad of maskmaking workshops for children at public and private schools, museums and festivals. Lately I have become very interested in Giant Puppets.

Download Ellen’s CV here.

Download “LOOKING AT ELLEN MOON’S In The Field: 365 Days FIELD PAINTINGS” here.