Ellen McCormick Martens: Houston, Texas, United States; I am a painter; I also do abstract collage, mostly using paper that I paint and print myself. I also use stencils and my own carved rubber stamps. I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and decided to be an artist at age 12. I began to paint full-time in 1996, after working as a computer typesetter for 16 years. At first I did a lot of brightly-colored landscapes with flattened shapes and space. I love light through trees, and painted a lot of that subject. You can see some of this work on my older blog, ellenmccormickmartens.blogspot.com. From bright, flat landscapes I moved on to beaded collage portraits of myself and my family, then to geometric zodiac paintings, and on to the abstract collage work I am currently creating. I hope that my spirit comes through my work. I believe that each human being is immortal, incarnated many times, and that we keep learning and perfecting ourselves.

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