About Ellen Phelan

  • Biography

    Ellen Phelan was born in 1943 and spent her childhood in Detroit, Michigan. Her mother was a nurse and her father was a real estate salesman. She considered herself a misfit, she was a talented child who drew and painted with facility, and she also played the violin and sang well enough to consider a career in music. In 1961 Phelan entered Wayne State University in Detroit eventually earning a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree.

    One of her first teaching jobs was at the California Institute of the Arts, in the late 1970s. A more recent one was as professor of Studio Arts in the Visual and Environmental Studies department at Harvard University.

    In 1978 she married sculptor...

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