Peninsula Arts Council
10 Twin Pines Lane
Belmont, CA 94002
(650) 591-2101
(650) 591-2024 fax
info@peninsulaartscouncil.org
www.peninsulaartscouncil.org

web design

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Since I was 3, I have loved to draw and paint. I see my art (and my music), as a way to create joy and hope, both for for myself and my larger world.

I love vibrant color. For me, colors are expressions of life, hope and joy. They reflect my appreciation for nature, with all of its wonderful creations of shape and hues, the blues and greens of the ocean, the golden beauty of an Indian Summer. I am inspired by painters Georgia O'Keefe and Frida Kahlo, and muralists Diego Rivera and Susan Cervantes and their freedom to use color in varied and unusual ways.

My mediums are acrylic paints, water color, colored pencil, and pen and ink.

I begin with ideas, these become translated into shapes, and color. An important goal for me is to keep the viewer interested enough to take a second look and fully explore my paintings. More and more of the painting is revealed the longer one looks at it.

Ellen was born in 1956 in Richmond, California, and began painting as soon as she could hold a brush (age 3). Her first works were "impressionistic" watercolors, (Popeye followed by the Pony Express.) In junior high school, high school, and in college she studied figure drawing, impressionistic oil painting, pen and ink and watercolor.

She was influenced by poster artist Peter Max, and album cover artists of the 1960’s known for their bright colors and swirling psychedelic graphics. As a high school student she studied Vincent Van Gogh's impressionistic style and Toulouse-Lautrec's posters.

In 1980, Ellen earned a bachelors degree in Design/Illustration from San Jose State University. Since 1980, her graphic design clients have included Joan Baez, the City of San Mateo, San Francisco & Palo Alto Chamber Orchestras. (current clients)

In 1997 after a mural tour of San Francisco's Mission District, at Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center in San Francisco, she began taking mural composition classes at Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center, and volunteering on mural projects. She was soon awarded several mural direction projects with JFK Elementary School in Daly City, CA. A continuous stream of projects followed, including a 2006 collaboration with Master Muralist Susan Cervantes (at St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA) and a 2009 collaboration with Chicago artist Kerry James Marshall at SF MOMA (Museum of Modern Art).

Those vivid colors of the 1960’s still influence Silva’s mural work.

Her private and commercial mural projects include Seton Medical Center, California Pacific Medical Center, St. Mary’s College, Fuddrucker’s Restaurant and many more.

In addition to private and commercial commissions, Ellen loves working with children and has directed community mural projects in over 30 Bay Area schools adn communities.

She also partners with Liscensed Therapists to lead Healing Arts Workshops in communities dealing wth Trauma.

Ellen is a musician and composer, and sings in 2 acapella groups, a Hawaiian band, (the Tikitones), and her own band, Island Dream.

EDUCATION:
Bachelors Degree, 1980, Graphic Arts/Illustration

Awards:
Very Special Person Award for Service to Children and Youth, June 2001: California State PTA, Presented by PTA at John F. Kennedy Elementary School PTA, Daly City, CA

"Cafe de la Paix"

Dante's Purgatorio

"Underwater"



"Poppies"



"Fruit and Flowers"

"Hope Ascending"

"Una Pueblita de Mexico"