We recently had the chance to connect with Ella Dawood ( Elshekh) and have shared our conversation below.
Ella , so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. Who are you learning from right now?
I started reading a lot more since I graduated, two years ago. Books has been helping me a lot to find a structure. Graduating was disorienting a bit and having a point of reference that I could come to was very helpful. In this case it was books that got me back to the creative flow. The other is my mentor Jason Pollen, he has been the one person I have been constantly learning from, not only on a professional level but on a personal level as well. Jason is a prominent fiber artist who have been a core support in my life for the past year. You never know how much a person can change your life until you meet them and let them in your world.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m an Egyptian visual artist, based currently in KC. I moved here for art school. Drawing and painting was the art form that I started expressing myself with. However, documentation has always been the main motive behind making work for me, the need to encapsulate moments and memories before they become part of the past is vital to my studio practice. Because making with clay becomes a permanent record of time –especially with its ties to the earth – I have found later on that ceramics is my preferred method of documentation alongside painting and photography. I make these huge quantities of beads that are strung together and either hung on the wall, from the ceiling, or laid on functional ceramics ware. This visual language was the result of my lifelong inspiration by Egyptian jewelry. As I make these beads, each individual one marks a moment in time, a memory, a place where I live and work, and so do the paintings. The installation in the end becomes a collective portrayal of my history.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who taught you the most about work?
My grandfather was the first person ever to introduce art to me. He used to draw for me when I was little with graphite pencil these little illustrations on the back of calendar paper. My art mentors were the ones who taught me the most after that. My first art mentor was Marian Lefeld ( painter and art mentor) who believed in me more than any other person, she always acted and made me believe that we can do anything we want as artists if we put effort in it. If we were determined enough, we can do it, and that helped me immensely while I was in community college and after. Jen Rose ( ceramist and business owner) I learned that being consistent is an important key to have ( which I’m still learning hehe), and to believe in yourself and your ideas. Then I met my KCAI mentors; Cary Esser, Casey Whittier, and Jason Pollen who taught me a lot about hard work and pushing the limits, and the importance of authenticity. I learned a great deal about sharing, respect and patience. What I learned from my mentors shaped who I am right now, and I couldn’t be more grateful to every single one of them.
When you were sad or scared as a child, what helped?
Drawing.
Drawing always helped me go through the toughest times in my life, especially as a child. It was a way of journaling without a language. I could say anything with drawing, I could cry with drawing, I could tell secrets with simple or even bold marks, I can be fast or slow, elaborate or minimalist. I started drawing at a really young age, I would like to thank my grandfather for that who used drawing as a distracting method for me when I would cry when I was very young. I would look at the pencil tip scratching the paper and see what it can create and be very astonished at his illustrations and wonder how can he do that. I grew up to draw with all materials, the most memorable one is chalk, I loved drawing on the wall and furniture with chalk ( thanks mom for being chill about that). Other wise I drew a lot as a teenager, some angsty sad candle or crying eyes drawings, then I got trained for observational drawing when I was in college. Now I find my comfort in abstraction drawing. Mark making has been a language i’m totally in love with since young age, and it has been the consisting action that I carried with me all along.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
Telling the truth. I was raised in a culture where values and standards where held high. Like any set of rules, some of them didn’t make sense and some proved to be important. Telling the truth is one of those which proved to be important to me, it is not always easy but it defines the courageous. Taking the easy way out wasn’t something I found admirable, never worked either, it made cowards and I refuse to be one.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: When do you feel most at peace?
When I’m mixing paint to prepare for a painting or when I’m coil building with clay. Both activities are physical and they provide me with the most peaceful feeling. Sometimes I wish it could last forever.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elladawood.squarespace.com
- Instagram: @elladawood_
- Linkedin: Ella Dawood
Image Credits
Black and white photos, credit goes to Markle Randle
the rest, credit goes to Maxwell Wagner
