Ellen Dahlberg was born in 1972 and raised in Chicago, Illinois,
the City of Broad Shoulders. She attended Chicago Public Schools, graduating from Lane Technical High School in 1989. After a short stint on scholarship at the University of Illinois @ Chicago, she transferred to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb where she attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting in 1994.
Ellen married her college sweetheart, Chad Roberts, atop a sandstone bluff called Starved Rock, overlooking the Illinois River, in July of 1995, and shortly thereafter the two packed up their gear, 1987 Toyota 4Runner, pop-top camper and 1973 VW Superbeetle, and headed west to Arizona.
They lived in that camper in the national forests all summer and autumn, and then when winter winds blew cold they moved indoors, renting a small cottage in the unfashionable east side "barrio" of Flagstaff, AZ. They lived there for 2 years, before packing up their gear again and heading to Jerome, AZ., a tiny picturesque mountainside "ghost city" in Yavapai county, once notorious for its copper heyday of miners, prostitutes, bar brawls.
Ellen was accepted into the Jerome Artists Cooperative in March of 1997. She also had a couple 'a successful solo shows in Sedona, AZ in 1998 and 1999. Later featured artist shows at the Co-op occured in 1998, 1999, 2003 and 2006.
The Beetle long having given up the ghost due to excessive Illinois rust ("rest in peace/ rust in pieces" read the headstone), the Volkwagen fetishism lay dormant until 1998, when they acquired a dreamy 1973 Karmann Ghia from a family in Clarkdale. They've since put nearly 100,000 miles on the beast, having driven it to Chicago, Mexico, and California.
They lived in Jerome until February of 2001, when they closed escrow on a cool historic brick bungalow in neighboring Clarkdale. With fruit trees and honeysuckle, a cat named Clyde two dogs-- Floyd, and Ivan-- and a parking lot full of vintage VWs,
ain't life grand?
|
