Ellis Price ’18 Works in an Old Maine Mill with Modern Textiles

Art history major and visual arts minor Ellis Price, in Erin Flett’s Westbrook studio.

While studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, last year — a city famous for its love of beautiful design — Catherine “Ellis” Price decided that creating textiles was her calling.

The first textile designs she made, one for a wallpaper and the other for a fabric, were inspired by the Danish landscape — the old canals and the rolling farmland, divided into tidy rows. “I wanted to connect the two landscapes, farming and water,” she said.

Designing patterns — for blankets, rugs, pillows, tea towels, napkins, etc. — incorporates Price’s interests in printmaking, drawing, and photography. Plus it appeals to her down-to-earth side.

“In a sense, textile design is more practical [than fine arts],” she said. “It is something you live with everyday and use everyday. And I think it is pretty interesting how you can do so much with a simple design, like stripes. It might be simple, but you can still create something beautiful and transform a space.” Read the full story in Bowdoin News.