We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Linden Eller. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Linden below.

Linden, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

While living in Japan and working as a preschool & kindergarten teacher, I was so inspired by my students’ artwork, and equally fascinated with the concept of childhood amnesia, that I decided to create a series influenced by both. I asked each child (who ranged in age from 2-6 years old) to draw a recent memory from their school year and I recreated collaged versions of the drawings, exhibited side by side. The project was a reflection on what is lost, kept, altered, and shared during the first years of life, and remains incredibly meaningful.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a mixed media visual artist, illustrator, and educator. My work explores a dichotomy between memory architecture and the present experience. I use a variety of materials to create, including paper, found fragments, transparencies, sewing thread, paint, pencil, ink, and pastels. In honoring the “now,” I often will incorporate items from my immediate surroundings, such as plants, petals, tea leaves, receipts from pockets, scattered desk papers, even elements from my beverage or snack. This also supports my aim to increase sustainability in creation – giving purpose to the plain, trash bound items, and renaming them as curious offerings of texture, or poignancy.

My work acts as a gentle nudge to loosen our hold on the past, celebrating the science that memory is full of alterations, renewals, and inaccuracies. Embracing intuition, experimentation, and play, many parts of my process are intentionally unplanned – an exercise in mindfulness and acceptance of each moment and decision. I think of my work as layered field recordings that represent a oneness – multiple perspectives and repetitions of the same shared story. Richard Powers says, “Memory is always a collaboration in progress.. You’re not just you.”

I sell original works, prints, book collections, and collage kits in my shop online. I also offer commissions – editorial, commercial, or residential – and partner with art consultants and interior designers to provide artwork for various clients. For those interested in deepening their artistic skills and language, I provide art mentoring sessions and lessons. On Patreon, you can join my sketchbook club, tutorials community, or sign up to receive monthly surprise original sketches straight from my studio.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is surfacing themes that feel meaningful to others, and that give a voice to otherwise unaware or unexpressed emotions. Art has the incredibly powerful ability to trigger an internal experience in someone, offering feelings of connection, resonation, and being seen. The world needs more of this!

Have you ever had to pivot?

Motherhood has been a big pivot in my life, and continues to be a joyful puzzle of balance. It has taken me into a deep examination of self, time, capacity, and identity that has echoed into my studio practice. While sometimes uncomfortable, I’m grateful for the shift, as I feel it’s leading me through new necessary and important reflections, boundaries, and states of flow and acceptance.

Contact Info:

• Website: lindeneller.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/lindeneller
• Facebook: facebook.com/lindeneller
• Other: patreon.com/lindeneller