Ellyn Weiss is an abstract painter whose studio is located in Mt. Ranier, Maryland, close to the Washington, DC border. I visited Ellyn in her studio and learned about her childhood which was steeped in reading.

Ellyn Weiss grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania and had an early opportunity to watch someone make art in a studio. That person was her mother, who carved stone sculptures and the studio was part of their house. Although petite, Ellyn’s mom took on the challenge of working with large pieces of stone using power tools. It was amazing to me that she would take blocks of stone and make something appear out of them. She would work on one sculpture for six months at a time.

That “take charge” personality must have had an effect on Ellyn. Her favorite toy was a village of little people, houses and cars. I would play with one little person at a time and I felt very bossy!  I would take an hour to make up a whole story about that person, what they had to do, where they were going – entire stories about them.

I was a huge reader of fiction. I literally read through every book in the children’s library by the time I was in third grade. We went to the main library and I got an adult library card, so now there were all these other books and I could have whatever I wanted! Every week we would take five or six books home and I would read them. There were really no illustrations in these books but sometimes I would draw pictures for the stories I read.

Aside from running her own village, Ellyn made art as a child. Here is what she recalled about art supplies and looking at art:

I would beg my mom to buy the bigger set of Crayola crayons. I had sketch books and charcoal.

When we drove down Riverside Drive in Philadelphia, I would see sculptures by Rodin that I was totally taken by. What also attracted me at an early age was Medieval stuff. Recreations of Medieval spaces, icons. I always really loved icons, in fact some of my very first paintings were of icons. The mystery of those people looking at you from 2000 years ago, I found that very appealing.

Ellyn Weiss, figurative sculpture, mixed media

Urban Reflex, 16′ x 4′, mixed media

Ellyn recently created Urban Reflex, a 16’ drawing for the exhibit BIG IDEAS. This memory seems to suggest her ease in making large scale art:

We had a big sectional sofa with a curve in it and an overwhelming beautiful blue and yellow pattern so when you look at this huge expanse of couch, it was quite overwhelming, like being in a flower garden really. That’s a strong, strong memory.

BIG IDEAS in Brentwood, Maryland consists of wall art by Ellyn and two other Washington, DC area artists as well as collaborative sculpture hanging in the center spaces of the gallery which were created by all three artists. When I asked Ellyn about whether her child self was still a part of her adult life, this is what she said:  There is no question about it. I feel like what I do every day is play, especially the last few months working on this installation which is very new for me. I have been working with objects and making them look like something totally different and boy that feels like Kindergarten. It felt exactly like that. I think as artists we spend a good part of our effort trying to get back to that feeling of being kids.

What happens when someone never stops playing in order to create, to discover, to invent? Here is a look at Ellyn’s studio today.

Ellyn Weiss in her studio, May 2011

See more art by Ellyn Weiss at www.eweissart.com