Ella Richards

What is a drawing? You can draw with charcoal, ink, spray paint, a computer, so why not with paper. Drawing is where my art starts and ends. I do a study with a pencil then I redraw the study on the reverse of the black art paper. The drawing continues as I refine the line when I am cutting the drawing out of black paper, so the scissors becomes a tool exactly like a pencil.

I am an avowed minimalist. I like the simplicity of black on white. It allows me to focus on the line and emotion of the piece. I also like the themes to be clear and uncomplicated, simply elegant and beautiful.

My education is in pediatric medicine with a minor in art history, I studied in Tartu University in Estonia, when it was the USSR. I moved to NYC and continued at Columbia when I decided medicine wasn’t for me.

I get inspiration from events and people in my memory before I left the USSR. Today I am lucky to live in one of the most fascinating neighborhoods in the world, Greenwich Village. I never lack for inspiration, I simply step out of my apartment and it is there, all around me.

I have a video that describes my process, although it is a large scale project I did at Facebook, the procedures are the same. https://youtu.be/DUBDt_AMhj8