Dispatch 39: Live Local Love Makers ~ Ellen Ogden

Interview by Jeffrey Roedel • Artist, Muralist Ellen Ogden

Artist, Muralist

Ellen Ogden

31

Baton Rouge, LA

With one glance down at her shoes, anyone can see that Ellen Ogden works a lot. Currents of color streak across the painter’s black velcro sneakers like laser bolts shooting through the midnight sky in some scene of climactic science fiction mayhem. This is the artist’s creativity cataloged in spills and splotches from the past several years of making in her studio or out on the streets in massive murals like the one her artfully-splattered shoes trail under now.

The piece, towering over a parking lot off Laurel Street in downtown Baton Rouge, is a fiercely-charged work filled with movement and tension, yes, but also a resounding promise of calm. It is called Equal Pay. 

Photo provided by Ellen Ogden.

Tell us about the inspiration and concept of the mural we are photographing in front of today?

Ellen Ogden: The biggest struggle, through the process of researching, reading articles, testimonials, and statistics, was how to generate imagery that could be infused with positivity and forward motion. This piece was one produced for the Walls Project “One Rouge” campaign—the first of nine murals highlighting the nine drivers of poverty. The other eight are to be produced by other artists. This piece is about women heads-of-households stuck in a cycle of poverty, and the devastating effects that gender inequity can and has contributed to the cycle of poverty. 

The design is hinged on a strong woman, and I chose Lady Justice because of our downtown community concentrated with lawyers, and because she is a symbol of justice, and balancing equality.

Where she is usually inactive, blind, impartial, in my design she’s taking an active stance to take off her blindness and shake the uneven scales. The scales are uneven, to show the disparity in gender pay, especially in Louisiana, but they are in motion. The heavier scale is symbolically blue representing the weightier value that is generally placed on male roles in our community. It’s going up in blue smoke, though, which Lady Justice is turning her back on, as it floats behind her, the other scale is lighter but is painted as a lotus pod, and it is full of seeds, potential, growth, and becoming, which are falling and growing into lotus flowers, a symbol of feminine strength.

Her vision, and ability to open her eyes is both empowering and is manifesting empowerment as she shakes the seeds out of their dormant state. The seeds also tie back to a Louisiana motif: they are the Cajun and Native American delicacy that has been around for hundreds of years called grains a voler: seeds that fly. The seeds are collected, boiled and doused with cayenne. It’s an overlooked commodity that when acknowledged and given the attention merited they are elevated to their full but under-appreciated value and potential. 

Whether painting a famous face or some kind of portrait, or floral or wildlife, is there a through-line or commonality that you always want your work to capture or convey to the viewer?

EO: I always focus on color, both in aesthetic harmony, and as a way to transmit symbolic resonance. Generally, there are always symbols within that grant access to more, so symbolic depth and color I suppose! 

When you were first learning to create and paint, who were some of your biggest inspirations? And who or where do you go to now for inspiration?

EO: I’ve been painting since I was little bitty, so I can’t say who I first looked at. I would say I’ve looked at and loved what’s available to me at any stage: when I was young, it was paintings in houses I went to, maybe a Monet print, or other common household names, and it’s still the same, except Instagram is out there and I went to Art school, so my inspirations are more available and expansive. I love the graphic mural artist ARYZ right now. 

When do you feel most creative? What headspace and/or physical space do you like to get into in order to be your artistic best?

EO: I feel most creative when I’m in the middle of a project, working hard. That tends to be when other ideas pop up. I find motivation from activity, so running, biking, being outside painting, camping, traveling. I’ll get clean air, headspace, and endorphins to fuel ideas when I get to work. 

Why is it important to you to buy local and support local artists and makers?

EO: I think buying from local artists and makers encourages local people to make and create. There is a deficit in the causes that art engagement mandates, and the more creators we have, the more open the community is to looking for and participating in these causes.

Ellen is wearing our blue Live Local Love Makers long-sleeve shirt, designed and printed in the USA. Find it in our Store.

#LiveLocalLoveMakers