painter amongst other things
Born in Hayward, California, Ellena has been painting and creating for over ten years. She works in oil and watercolor, painting internal and external landscapes in combination with emotion and history. Re-indigenizing how we view land and our interactions with the natural world. Her paintings are an extension of their body and her body is an extension of the land. Ellena graduated in the spring of 2021 from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with a Bachelor's in Fine Art with a focus in painting and a minor in Gender and Sexualities. She has been working all over the East Bay as a teaching artist since 2022, working with students aged 2-16. Some galleries that have shown their work include Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, Wailoa Center in Hilo, and HPU Kaneohe Gallery. They are currently a studio artist at Root Division in San Francisco.
ellena.ruiz25@gmail.com
photo by Quentin Torres
