Bio

Ella Lickei is a 3-D artist focusing on ceramics and fibers. She was born and raised in the Midwest in Watertown, South Dakota. Growing up, Ella’s family had a deep appreciation for traditional crafts, teaching her at a young age sewing, baking, beading, and stained glass. By the age of 13, Ella had a firm understanding of traditional arts. However, just understanding crafts was not enough; therefore, Ella joined ceramics in middle school, where her artwork truly grew. Throughout all of Ella’s life, art has been there, but she began to define herself as an artist at the end of high school. Throughout her University experience, where she studied fine arts, Ella began to break the walls between traditional and contemporary artwork, challenging what is defined as fine arts. She works to define art as a modern revival of the old school crafts, a new examination of traditional arts. Art is important to Ella, as she finds that art is something that can connect groups of people. By hand-making each item and giving them to people, there is now a new love of connection. For example, a quilt made is seemingly warmer, and a plant pot made by hand holds the roots with more care. By crafting and giving, art can connect people who are otherwise estranged. 

Artist Statement

Using fiber arts and ceramics, I create three-dimensional work that sits somewhere between traditional craft and contemporary design. A lot of my inspiration comes from what I lovingly call “old-lady crafts” the crocheting, stitching, hand-building, and everyday making that generations before me used to fill their homes with beauty and usefulness. I reinterpret these domestic traditions with a modern eye, bringing forward techniques rooted in comfort, nostalgia, and slow, steady process.

Modern perspectives show up in the details: the line work, the sense of functionality, and the more abstract forms I explore. Artists like Vera Stravinsky influence the way I break down patterns and structure line work in my pieces, giving me permission to deconstruct and rebuild familiar motifs. I also look toward contemporary artist Nicole Daksiewicz, whose abstract quilting pushes me to experiment not only in my own quilts but across other practices. Her work inspires the shapes I choose in embroidery and the more unusual forms I attempt.

Function plays a big role in my studio practice. I’m always interested in where the line between “art” and “object” actually sits. Whether I’m working with clay or yarn, I want the things I make to be touched, held, and lived with. When designing forms, I start with something familiar and then push it, stretching shapes into something slightly unexpected.

Above all, I want my work to feel familiar, surprising, and joyful. I hope viewers recognize echoes of handmade objects from their own lives and see them again in a new light. My practice celebrates everyday making and the quiet beauty of hands that never stopped crafting.

CV