ElleCoyote Art takes its name from a powerful moment many years ago, when I saw a coyote standing calmly by the side of the road. She felt like a sacred presence — watchful, resilient, and wild. Adding “Elle,” both a nod to my own name and to the French word for “she,” affirmed her as part of me.

My roots are mostly Irish with a thread of French, and both heritages continue to shape me. I grew up in Wisconsin, where my great-grandfather worked in the lumber business and built log cabins by a tannin-dark lake. At the lake, I found my true refuge in the forest: slipping away to listen to birdsong, watch red squirrels and dragonflies, and absorb the rhythms of the natural world.

That early sense of belonging to nature has never left me. Myth, spirit, and imagination infuse my work. For many years, I painted what I saw — landscapes alive with light and seasonal change. Over time, I shifted to painting what I experienced inwardly: the energies, archetypes, and deeper patterns behind appearances. This opened into symbolic paintings, mythologized portraits, and now abstraction woven with representation.

In my recent series — the Ogham Tree Alphabet — I return to trees as ancient teachers, layering collage, stenciling, and acrylic paint to create textured surfaces that invite exploration. I also sketch digitally in Procreate, using the iPad to test ideas that later become paintings.

Through all of this, my art remains bold, questioning, and forward-looking, while honoring memory and belonging. I see myself as the embodiment of America’s restless spirit — not its clichés, but its living soul: rebellious, inclusive, rooted in the land, and always reaching toward the future.

Maxims

My work as an artist is guided by the belief that greatness is not measured by power or domination, but by how we lift one another and advance the human condition. These words express the values that live at the heart of my practice:

• Noble figures are those who advanced the human condition.

• True greatness is found in lifting others, not in ruling over them.

• The worth of a life is measured by how it enlarges the lives around it.

• Power may shape events, but only nobility shapes humanity.

• Flaws make us human; the courage to serve makes us noble.

• Those who grant dignity to others leave the deepest legacy.

In my paintings, I try to embody these convictions — using image, symbol, and form to affirm the resilience of humanity and the enduring presence of dignity, compassion, and vision.