q+a: josiah ellner

Tchotchke Gallery: Best art advice you’ve ever gotten?

Josiah Ellner: Don’t work a 9-5 desk job. 

TG: How did you get into art?

JE: It definitely was the illustrated children’s books that I grew up reading that got me into art.

TG: What part of your city (people, places, moments, etc.) have you fallen in love with the most?

JE: Bradford beach!  In the summer I try to spend as much of my free time at Bradford soaking up the sun, playing volleyball and spikeball with friends.  The mix of the cool breeze that comes off the lake and the heat of the summer sun is my happy place. 

TG: Are there any particular paintings in this exhibition that will be hard to part with? Why?

JE: Plant Daddy will be hard to say goodbye to for sure.  He started off as a sketch that I did back in 2019, I then revisited the sketch and colored it in 2020 and finally made it into a painting in 2021.  It just feels like the painting has been swirling around in my brain for a while now so I’ll definitely miss its presence.

TG: Best studio drink?

JE: Green tea.  It has the perfect amount of caffeine to give me the sustained and calm energy that I need for a productive session in the studio.