Aug 13, 2020
In this episode, you’ll meet British artist Sian Ellis. Sian is excited to be a full-time artist after years working concurrently in charity events management and art. Sian’s favorite events to produce were Halloween ones. She organized a children’s event that featured the crafting of monster lanterns out of tissue paper and birch. Once the children completed their lanterns, they put fairy lights in them and paraded around to the beats of a steel drum band. One of her favorite grown-up events to plan was a scary movie night in the woods.
Sian has been drawn to spooky stuff, history, and art since childhood. She loved buying ghost books from her school bookfair (she still has the books). She would set up ghost traps around her house (she never caught one). She’d use up her drawing pads and then start drawing in the family books, much to her parents’ dismay. She still loves ghost stories now, in addition to true-crime and horror. She highly recommends the No Sleep Podcast (https://www.thenosleeppodcast.com).
With the exception of ceramics, Sian is completely self-taught. She recently moved into a studio in a community artists’ area – she likes it much better than her previous home attic studio. Her studio is filled with cheerful colors and ghosts. Dot is her 4-legged studio assistant. Dot helps remind Sian to stay healthy by encouraging her to not just work all day.
Sian loves to illustrate haunted versions of regular family homes. She feels honored that people trust her with such personal work. One of her favorite commissions was capturing the yard of a passionate home haunter in the US.
Sian is participating in a new quirky makers web site, https://happy-emo.com. She recommends it for browsing for alternative UK-made goods. Halloween isn’t as big in the UK as the US, but it is growing. Her hometown (Sheffield, England), has a festival in October called Out of this World, filled with cosplay, creepy movie cars, and Halloween. The city dyes the water in their fountain radioactive green.
Sian’s web site is: http://sianellisillustration.co.uk
Find the podcast web site at: https://www.halloweenartandtravel.com