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by Mary Nelson

Ellen Jean Diederich could easily be described as Wonder Woman.  Take your pick: artist, mother, wife, teacher, friend, daughter, companion, chauffeur, author,entrepreneur.  Ellen is a little bit of each of them.  Topping her "priorities" list right now would be wife, mother and artist. She and her husband, Paul, have two daughters. Monica is 13 and an eighth grade at Discovery Junior High School while nine-year-old Brittany attends Lincoln Elementary School. Her love of art dates back to her childhood. When she was nine years old she drew a picture of Bambi.

"My sister, Darin, told me that it was "really good" and that I should be an artist," Ellen remembers.  Her junior high art teachers in Staples, Minn. nurtured her interest in painting.

"I really had great teachers. Both Rose Edin (oils & watercolors) and Russel Norberg (watercolors) have since turned professional," Ellen said.  Ellen graduated from Moorhead State University in 1983 with a BFA degree in fine art and a BA in art education. She worked her way through college drawing portraits at the flea market in Detroit Lakes and later at JC Penny & The Old Broadway etc..

"When I started at the flea market I charged $3 for kids and $4 for adults," she said. The first day I made $42, and decided that kids weren't going to be cheaper any more - they wouldn't sit still and were much harder to work with!"  Ellen and Paul Diederich met soon after he graduated from Arizona State University.

"We met at the Eastgate Lounge in Moorhead; I was dating one of his friends, and we all decided to go down to the lake. By the time we got there, I was with Paul," she said, laughing.  The couple dated for five years. After she graduated from college Ellen took a teaching position in Pine River, Minn.  I really enjoyed it," she remembers.

"I had to really go back to the basics, which was good experience for me - and for the students, I hope."

Prior to their marriage, Ellen would drive back and forth to Fargo to see Paul on weekends.

"We were married in February and there were no teaching jobs in Fargo so I decided I'd just do my art," she said.  "It was tough," she said. "I hadn't developed any habits: how to manage my time, how to handle phone calls. When you don't have a "real job" people think you can just pick up and leave anytime, and that's not true."

"I didn't know what I wanted to do with my art, so I did all sorts of horrible things. My failure rate was probably nine out of 10! Then I started drawing everything first and my failure rate dropped to five out of ten. Today it's maybe one out of five, which is pretty good."

When Monica was born in 1988, Ellen took her to a part-time day care so she could have time to paint.

"They tell you that babies will sleep for three to four hours at a time, but that doesn't always happen," Ellen said. "Besides it motivated me - I had to make enough money selling my paintings to pay the day care bill!"

"Discipline is a major part of any artistic endeavor, whether it be painting or writing," Ellen said.

"I'd see my neighbors out having coffee in the backyard, and I'd really want to join them. But it was my time to work, and I stuck with it."

Knowing that she needed some time for herself, Ellen takes Tuesday's off to play golf. She and Paul also play couples golf.

"We're equally bad," she quipped.  The couple and their girls enjoy outings at the "Diederich Cottage" on Pelican Lake on weekends. Paul's parents, Warren and Irene, have a lake home that has been a family gathering place for years.  Brittany was born in 1992.

"My two girls are totally opposite," Ellen says. Both already show artistic ability and Ellen nurtures their interest. "I'm trying to do what my mom did," she said.

"I give them a place to work and supply materials, and just let them do what they want to do. If they want help, they ask for it."  Ellen says that Brittany likes to do activities with the neighborhood boys, such as Nintendo, radar race cars and sports.

"Monica is more into the "girlie" stuff," her mother said.

"Even when she was little she wanted to wear dresses every day - preferably pink ones! The girls both take part in music activities, at their mother's insistence, and Monica is currently in a play at First Lutheran Church.

"I ask their opinion of my work, which is always interesting," Ellen confides.  Ellen used to set aside afternoons for painting. Now, since the girls are older, she has switched her painting hours to mornings.

"It seems that after 3 o'clock I'm spending most of my time in the car," she said, laughing.

"Now I do paperwork in the early afternoons, and some warm-up painting.  She plans many of her paintings while traveling with Paul. As President of Industrial Builders and Executive Director of the National Association of General Contractors, Highway Division, Paul has several out-of-state meeting every year.

"I take along my sketch pads and photographs and have quiet, uninterrupted time to work," she said.

"It's worked very well for me." Ellen tries to write in her journal every day.

"I just write about what I like, and dump any personal garbage into the journal to get it out of my head so I can concentrate on work." She also does meditation on a regular basis.  The Fargo-Moorhead area provides a "fantastic" climate for local artists.

"We have the Plains Art Museum, the Rourke Art Gallery, and several other galleries right here. And the art department at Minnesota State University Moorhead is so good -I'm lucky to have been able to study there," she said.  While she has three representatives marketing her work on a regional and national level, Ellen says about 80% of her customers are from the Fargo-Moorhead area where her originals are marketed by Underbrush Gallery.

"My clients are really supportive, one has 12 of my original paintings. And I have some major business clients as well."

"There are so many people who have helped me right from the beginning," she continued.

"It's fun to continue to work with them." Every year Ellen hosts a Holiday Open House at her home in south Fargo. This year's show was Nov. 2-4 and Nov. 10. Ellen was instrumental in the formation of the Red River Watercolor Society. Driving to a workshop in Wisconsin a number of years ago, Ellen, Sandra Miles and Janet Flom decided to set up a local watercolor society so they could bring the very best artists in the country to hold workshops in Fargo. They appear to have succeeded. Next June, Ratrindra Das, a nationally known artist who does abstractions of scenes using curved geometric shapes will do a workshop at Minnesota State University Moorhead as part of a national show.

"You learn something from each of them," Ellen explained.

"It is often evident the effect the workshops have on area artists."  Ellen and Sandra met at a Rose Edin workshop at Mathison's.

"We were supposed to paint a poinsettia, and we could only afford one plant so we shared it," Sandra said. The two have been friends ever since.  The Red River Watercolor Society has two workshops a year, and also meets monthly, September through May, on the second Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. at Knollbrook Covenant Church in north Fargo.  And the speakers aren't just artists. Speakers have come from the Women's Business institute, American Express, as well as art history teachers.

"The artist who attend represent all levels," Ellen said.  Through the Red River Watercolor Society, Ellen & Carmen Bruhn, one her former art students, have become best of friends.  While Ellen had been specific to watercolors, she also works with oils and mixed media. "About four years ago I expanded my horizons," she explained.

"I had been a purist watercolorist, and realized I shouldn't be limiting what I can do because of my purist notions."  Now Ellen is expanding her horizons even further.

"I've written a children's book," she said.

"I've got about seven painting left to do for the illustrations. I'm doing it as fine art pieces, and it's a blast!"  In addition to her children's story, Ellen is also writing two books for artists.  Looking to the future, Ellen said she will remain open to change.

"I'll keep painting - and working even larger. I like painting big," she said, laughing. With three representatives taking her work to galleries around the country, she will become even better known.  In keeping with her writing, Ellen has established Givinity Press, a company that she will use to market all of her works. She even has her own website: www.givinity.com.  One of the newest facets of her work is the giclee's. A giclee is the scanned image of an original painting that is put on a disk. When wet water-based ink is spread on 300 pound watercolor paper, the result is a painting that looks like the original but is available for about 1/3 of the cost.  Ellen signs and numbers each of the giclee's individually.

"They look terrific, but you won't see them everywhere because they are still expensive," she said, adding that they will range in price from $95 to $400.  While she does a wide variety of watercolors, florals, domesticated animals and architecture are her favorite subjects.

"I mix 'em up," she says.  Many of her paintings come from photographs she takes while traveling.

"The family is used to seeing me with a camera in my hands - I'll take dozens of pictures and then combine ideas from several of them into one painting."  Ellen loves gardening, and gleans many ideas for her paintings through her work with the flowers and shrubs in her own yard.

"They have asked to use my garden for the tour next summer," she said.  One sister, Darin Henze, lives in Fargo. A pianist, Darin writes music and also is Ellen's framer.

"She will come over and we'll listen to what she has written while she is framing one of my paintings," Ellen said.  Another sister, June, lives in Schereville, IN, where she has an e-bay business and also buys homes to refurbish and then re-sell. A third sister, Lisa, is an accountant in Steamboat Springs, CO. Chris Utz, Ellen's half brother, travels around United States & Mexico for Super Value looking for locations for new stores. He lives in Plymouth, Minn.  Her parents, Don and Lois Westling, still live in Staples.  Wonder Woman? Maybe not.  Perhaps contented, happy, fulfilled and successful better describe Ellen Jean Diederich.

All images and content Copyright 2002 & 2003 by Ellen Diederich