Blog

Very excited to publish this first instalment of the Inspiring the Inspirers project! Hello Inspiration has been working with abstract artist Ellie Depp to produce a piece of inspirational artwork based on her unique life experience. What would this talented young painter have to say about inspiration?

I was interested to work with Ellie because I wanted to get to the bottom of how inspiration plays a part in the life of an artist. Where does her inspiration come from? Does she have to go looking for it, or does it come and find her? Does she ever get stuck for ideas, or fed up with the creative process?

Her story of the redemptive power of art taught me more about inspiration than I had ever expected.

“I was at University doing Maths because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. I wasn’t enjoying the course, and began to struggle with depression, which started to spiral out of control,” admits Depp. After some of the toughest times in her life battling with serious depression and thoughts of suicide, she decided to return home from University to get treatment. She dropped out of her course and decided to take up painting to fill her spare time.

“I got the painting bug and now here I am,” says Ellie. “My healing process has been long and I don’t think it’ll ever really be over – but painting has helped me get to a place where I’m more stable and happier than I have been for a while.”

“Art is my saviour,” says Depp.

“It has created a world for me to escape into. Art doesn’t judge me, it doesn’t talk back, it doesn’t feel sorry for itself or ignore me. Life is still rocky and very hard work, but my happiness has become priority number one and will always have to stay that way. If I can make my life enjoyable and meaningful, and spend my time doing what I love, then I have a beautiful life.”

Ellie was keen to take part in the Inspiring the Inspirers project as soon as I contacted her. Her response to my long and rambling pitch for the project was simple and full of enthusiasm: “Sounds awesome I’d love to be included!”.

I initially expected to create a design based on where the inspiration for Ellie’s art came from, and I actually sent a set of primer questions about the mechanics of her creative process. What Ellie came back with was so much more personal and honest that I was blown away. The project was no longer about how she is inspired to create her art, but about how art itself inspired her to change her life.

“When Chris asked me to be part of  this project, I spent some time thinking about my journey so far. I wanted to convey how art has helped me to change my priorities, and ensure that happiness is my number one focus in life,” says Ellie. She summed it up perfectly in her simple brief to me:

“I’ve never been happier than when I’m making my life beautiful.”

Armed with this message, and an understanding of the challenges she has faced in her life, I played around with the concepts of beauty, happiness and the restorative power of art. I presented Ellie with a number of design concepts based on these themes, and this was her final choice:

I used Ellie’s acrylic painting Reminiscing Eden as a backdrop to this striking design. It is a stunningly bold and explosive painting – something which comes through even in the fragments which are visible in the lettering. The wording is a simple play on the phrase ‘art therapy’. By breaking it into two one-word sentences, we are emphasizing that Ellie’s work is both art in itself, and therapy for her. The two words – and everything they stand for – stand alone, but go hand in hand in Ellie’s life.

Ellie says: “I absolutely love this design!”

“I think it sums up everything about me and my art, and why I do what I do. I love the clean lines and the white background – the whole image just makes an instant impact. I am the living embodiment of art therapy, so using my artwork to form the words is genius.”

So how was the experience of working with Hello Inspiration? “I wasn’t sure what to expect when we first embarked on this collaboration,” admits Depp. “ I initially wanted to create some quote that was on the quality level of Martin Luther King and Einstein, but it was quite hard to say what I wanted to say without using a famous quote of someone else’s. I was delighted with the way Chris took my overall message and personality and managed to come up with several different options. I could never have managed anything like that myself.”

“The final design is something so simple, yet it represents me and my art work perfectly.”

Artwork featuring the “Art. Therapy.” design is available to purchase here, with 10% of all profits going to Mind, a charity which helps make sure no-one has to face a mental health problem alone.

Ellie Depp is a self-taught artist from Derbyshire UK, who creates stunning abstract works in acrylic and watercolour, and is particularly known for her striking use of colour. She has exhibited in Leeds, York, Sheffield, Derbyshire and London, and her work has been published in GQ amongst other publications. You can see more of Ellie Depp’s artwork here.