Biography

Ella Leidy is an interdisciplinary artist who works in found object, photograph, and textile sculpture. She was raised in North Dakota and is now based in St. Paul, Minnesota where she is currently in her final year at the University of Minnesota pursuing a BFA in art.

Statement

My interdisciplinary practice is a space in which I process my complex relationships with my identities, as well as the social stereotypes, cultural beliefs, and political rhetoric surrounding gender and sexuality in the United States.  My work explores the realities of womanhood and queerness and their intersection through the lens of my own lived experiences. I utilize a range of materials and techniques to weave these experiences into broader, shared narratives about gender and sexuality throughout American history. My most recent work reflects on my upbringing in rural North Dakota, reckoning with my feelings of isolation and otherness as a queer child in an overwhelmingly conservative, Christian community. I materialize these memories through the use of found objects and images and traditional handicraft techniques. Through processes of sewing, collage, mending, and assemblage, I seek to capture snapshots of moments or a memories otherwise unseen.