Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Auburn Ellis.
Hi Dr. Auburn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri I have a deep love for this city and the people that occupy it-especially the Vine Street District. The legacy of jazz music has always been an artistic inspiration. My earliest memories include being with my father at his business in the Lincoln Building in the 80’s, and attending preschool less than five minutes from my current studio space at 2033 Vine Street. This neighborhood is embedded in my DNA,
After graduating from Lincoln College Preparatory Academy High School, I went on to finish two Bachelors in four years at Mizzou. My exploration and love of art only got deeper during this time. I traveled abroad to Italy and began to understand myself not just as a Black girl from Kansas City, but as a global citizen. While abroad, I developed a deep appreciation for our local art collections and my understanding of the world.
After undergrad, I lived in Chicago for ten years, attended School of the Art Institute-Chicago and completed a Masters in Museum Education. It’s an imaginative and complicated facet of the arts, and it helped me create a broader lens for myself as both an artist and educator. My Doctoral degree was accompanied by travels to Prague, China and Bangladesh. With each trip abroad, I found new meaning in myself as an art maker and intuitive human,
Home is always in your heart. No matter how far I’ve traveled, being a Kansas Citian is part of my core. In 2017, I moved back. Educational consulting has been amazing here because I am helping people move their personal and professional objectives forward. Inspiring people in the city that pored so much into me. Since I’ve been here, it has really helped me understand how every experience as a child has impacted my intuitive spirit, and art-making.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
While in Chicago I started my business, Studio 54oo. The doors, however, didn’t open right away. My pursuit of degrees in education had shifted life from art-making to a living public school teaching. I was in school full time, and teaching full time while completing my Master’s and Doctorate. For the first five or six years, I wasn’t making any art for myself at all. This was a major challenge because it felt like a piece of me was missing. I had to overcome it by starting somewhere. I bought a sketchbook and got curious. My condo overlooked Lake Shore Drive, so I began to draw inspiration from the things I encountered every day. I would do simple watercolor studies from my window, and bought a camera to start capturing events like the full moon over Lake Michigan, and recreating them in collage or clay.
Once I found a rhythm and my home was filled with art supplies, I knew it was time to expand! My mentor, Turtel Onli, encouraged me to take up space at Bridgeport Art Center. It was a rehabbed manufacturing warehouse with hundreds of artists in every medium you can think of. I started selling art and hosting events out of a historic studio space. Studio 54oo was in full swing!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
In Chicago, I was more well known for art. In Kansas City, I am most known for yoga. After a myriad of degrees, teaching appointments and hosting art events, I was pouring from an empty cup. My shoulders were so tight. It literally felt like I had the weight of the world on them. In 2014 I started taking hot yoga and fell in love with the practice. Kemetic Yoga Teacher Training followed in 2017 because I wanted to bring voice to yogis of color and this cultural expression. When I moved to Kansas City, Studio 54oo shifted from hosting art events to planning yoga experiences,
I developed artandyogaflow.com to merge all the disciplines that I love! Since moving to Kansas City, visual arts has unfortunately taken a back seat again, although I have hosted events like Immersive Van Gogh, which allows me to combine my love for the arts with yoga. Currently, I am back in the studio at 2033 Vine and my pottery wheel is set up -waiting for me to come back to my first love.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Starting a yoga career was a big risk. In high school I was the slufoot teenager that was mediocre at best when it came to sports. The anatomy of my feet causes me to be clumsy and unaligned a times. When my thirties hit, my joints and back began to hurt, and the body changed dramatically. After being a stressed public school teacher-and full time student-my body was tight and the mind was constantly engaged. I craved some form of movement and source of wellness.
This is the reason I sought out hot yoga. The class was so hot, I couldn’t think about anything else. Sweat surrounded me on the mat, and the mind chatter that usually drove me crazy was actually silenced for a bit. The more I attended class, the more my body craved the cleanse.
After a few years, being a student, my intellectual mind reminded me that I was an educator; was there a possibility that I could also learn to teach the yoga classes that I love so much? Doubts surrounded me as my mind flashed back to my lack of athleticism in high school, and reminded me that I had not moved much since then -with the exception of yoga I just started at thirty years old. I decided to take a risk and try it out. It seemed worth it because the way my hips and my back felt, I really wanted to understand the science behind these classes that worked my physical body, and elevated mental being.
I am currently certified with over 500 hours of yoga training and help teachers, both locally and globally finding more inclusive teaching practices. We have to keep in mind that after risk comes reward! It has been extremely rewarding being able to teach people the science and the yoga practice that essentially saved both my body and mind.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://artandyogaflow.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_auburn?igsh=dnZuZDRrZTZ2eGtq&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studio54oo?
- Other: https://drauburn.com
