Today we’d like to introduce you to Ella Friberg.
Hi Ella, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
My story has taken a winding path to bring me to where I’m currently at. People often ask me if I’ve always been creative and I’d like to say yes, I believe I was born to create. But at some point in my life I squashed the artistic creativity and pursued the sciences. I received my masters of occupational therapy and worked as an OT in hospital settings for 11 years. I pursued various creative outlets during those 11 years through painting and photography, always on the side, never as my primary focus. My family encouraged very practical careers and healthcare was always viewed as practical, the art scene was not.
It wasn’t until I had my babies and moved cross country away from friends and family, that I started diving more into art as a way to find myself again in the midst of parenting young babies. I began with calligraphy, hand lettering, and watercolor painting. Let’s just say things escalated quickly! I would get wild ideas in my head and pursue those ideas and make things happen. That’s how I got my first mural gig…a 50ft mural!! This was in 2018…I would say that’s when I really pursued art in a more full time manner, while still caring for my small kids who were 3 and 5 at that time. I found that through art I was able to claim my space in this world, I was taught to be in the background, to always be quiet and collected, but now I was staking my claim in this world.
I painted a lot. And I explored various mediums and styles and landed on abstract and figurative work. I primarily paint with acrylics and oil and cold wax, but my watercolors are always nearby. As mom of young kids, when I first jumped back into painting, I craved community to connect with. Although I can be pretty shy, I made an effort to connect with other local creatives and business owners by attending a few Tuesdays Together meetings and just reaching out to women in the community through instagram. That’s how our first Art Club started, a few random women meeting up to socialize and create.
These monthly art clubs we had sparked the idea of one day having a studio space large enough to bring many women together. We as women and moms can easily lose ourselves to caring for our kids and family, and we let go of the part of ourselves that is creative. That creativity doesn’t have to be a business pursuit, it can just be a way of connecting with others and expressing ourselves. Since 2018, I worked primarily out of my dining room. But just a few months ago one of my dreams was realized and I became the owner of a creative studio space named The Studio by Ella Friberg.
It’s completely unreal to me and I often sit in my studio feeling like an imposter. But I know this is exactly where I’m supposed to be. Art has truly transformed who I am and I want this studio to be the means of transforming other women’s lives.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth or easy road. I find that there’s always a pull between my primary roll as a mom and also a business owner. At times it has felt that as soon as I get any momentum, something at home knocks me back a few steps and I have to start turning the wheel again. But I’ve had a mindset shift over the last year as it relates to finding balance in all of this.
I used to seek that elusive word, balance, between motherhood and business ownership. I’ve had to shift the vocabulary from balance to harmony. With balance I find that both sides have to be equal to one another. However, with harmony it’s different. Harmony comes from different frequencies and flows of energy working together in unison. Some weeks that looks like hanging out at home with a sick kid and just snuggling, some days that kid wants to actually hang out in the studio and dance while I get work done, other days when they are healthy and in school, I get to be fully in the zone in the studio alone. I’m finding that this helps me to not get as frustrated when things don’t go as planned, harmony and realizing that I’m in this for the long game.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a figurative and abstract painter. I am an emotional driven and intuitive painter as well. I love texture and layering in my work. I incorporate a variety of materials in my art and love the depth that a painting takes on when different mediums are used. As I briefly mentioned before, art has transformed me as a person. I use art as a way to claim my space in the world. It’s a way I break rules and cultural expectations. I want to encourage and empower others to create for the sake of creating, without always focusing on the outcome. This is something I have to remind myself of frequently as well, but it’s so important.
My figurative work comes from my experience with my own changing and evolving body, and my work with the human body as an occupational therapist. The work I create is evolving into expressing more of the essence of the figure as this is what is always constant, not necessarily the function and form. When I worked in a trauma hospital as an OT, people often lost use of limbs due to accidents and although the body didn’t function the same or didn’t look the same, the spirit and the essence was always constant. It is that essence that I aim to express through my work.
My abstract paintings explore various emotions through movement of paint and the brushstrokes I utilize. My aim is not to necessarily paint an abstracted version of an object people are familiar with. I want others to come to my paintings with their own thoughts and emotions and to experience the colors and movement through their own life experiences.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can view and shop my art on my website, website www.ellafriberg.com. I also hang out on Instagram and love meeting new people on there, find me @ellafriberg. I love when people share other artists work on instagram because it gives me a way to discover talent I otherwise may not have found. So if people feel like sharing my work with others, I would greatly appreciate it.
In my studio, I plan to host creative classes and would love artists to visit from all over to share their talents with my local community.
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@ellafriberg.com
- Website: www.ellafriberg.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/ellafriberg
- Other: www.thestudiobyella.com
Image Credits:
Billy Logan Creative
