Carson Ellis

Ellis grew up in New York and studied painting at the University of Montana,{{Cite web|url=http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/04/carson-ellis-on-the-decemberists-i-really-did-get.html|title=Carson Ellis on The Decemberists: "I really did get sick to my stomach when I heard that line"|website=pastemagazine.com|access-date=2016-03-05}} where she was influenced by art history, particularly Egon Schiele, Max Beckmann, and German Expressionism. She has written poetry since she was a teenager, though she didn't study writing in school.

She began her career as a fine artist in San Francisco and exhibited a solo show of oil paintings at a gallery in San Jose, California. Her first illustration work began when she met Colin Meloy at the University of Montana and designed gig posters for his college band Tarkio.

Ellis is an illustrator of several children's books, including the New York Times bestseller Wildwood, written by Colin Meloy;{{cite web|title=Best Sellers: Children's Chapter Books|url=https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-09-18/chapter-books/list.html|work=The New York Times|accessdate=22 October 2013|date=September 18, 2011}} The Composer Is Dead, written by Lemony Snicket;{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2009-04-05/picture-books/list.html | title=Best Sellers: Children's Picture Books | work=The New York Times | date=April 5, 2009 | accessdate=2013-10-19 | last=Dixler | first=Elsa}} and The Mysterious Benedict Society, written by Trenton Lee Stewart.{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/books/bestseller/0810bestchildren.html?_r=0&gwh=7213DEAB3AD13688CA940A680949D76A | title=Children's Books | work=The New York Times | date=August 10, 2008 | accessdate=October 21, 2013}} She received a 2010 Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators for her art in Dillweed's Revenge, by Florence Parry Heide.{{cite web | url=http://www.societyillustrators.org/Product.aspx?id=4096 | title=Dillweed's Revenge: A Deadly Dose of Magic | work=Society of Illustrators | accessdate=2013-10-19}} She collaborated again with Meloy on the second and third novels in the Wildwood Chronicles series, Under Wildwood (2012){{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780062024718|title=Under Wildwood|last1=Meloy|first1=Colin|last2=Ellis|first2=Carson|date=2012-01-01|publisher=Balzer + Bray|isbn=9780062024718|edition=1st|series=The Wildwood chronicles|location=New York|url-access=registration}} and Wildwood Imperium (2014).{{Cite book|url=https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=15362&recCount=100&recPointer=5&bibId=17920690&searchType=7|title=Wildwood imperium|last1=Meloy|first1=Colin|last2=Ellis|first2=Carson|date=2014|publisher=Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers|isbn=9780062024749|edition=1st|series=The Wildwood chronicles|location=New York, NY}}

She is also well known for her work with the indie folk rock band The Decemberists,{{Cite news|title=Q&A Colin Meloy, author, and Carson Ellis, illustrator: Book 'was a true collaboration': Pair to address festival, talk about importance of storytelling|last=Ruggieri|first=Melissa|date=September 1, 2011|work=Atlanta Journal-Constitution|id={{ProQuest| }}}} for whom she has created album art, T-shirts, websites, posters, and stage sets. Her album and EP artwork for The Decemberists include 5 Songs (2001), Castaways and Cutouts (2002), Her Majesty the Decemberists (2003), The Tain (2004), The Crane Wife (2006), The Hazards of Love (2009), What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (2015),{{Cite web|url=http://www.carsonellis.com/ok7m7idec4czhkrc8z4udui19uvsv5|title=WORK|website=Carson Ellis|access-date=2016-03-06}} and I'll Be Your Girl (2018). Ellis was nominated twice for Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package (2015 and 2018).{{Cite web|url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/carson-ellis|title=Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package|access-date=June 19, 2019}} She has also created album artwork for other musicians, such as Laura Veirs, Beat Circus, and Weezer.

In 2015, Ellis wrote and illustrated her first solo children's book, Home, which explores different types of domiciles around the world, underwater, and in space. The book has been criticized for the manner in which it glosses over colonization and the stereotyping of various ethnicities.{{cite web |last1=Debbie |first1=Reese |url=https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2015/03/home-by-carson-ellis.html |website=American Indians in Children's Literature|title=Home by Carson Ellis |date=30 March 2015 |accessdate=3 October 2019}}{{cite web |title=Home by Carson Ellis |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carson-ellis/home-ellis/ |publisher=Kirkus |quote=Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2015/06/carson_ellis_finds_home_with_n.html|title=Carson Ellis finds 'Home' with new children's book, art for the Decemberists|website=OregonLive.com|date=9 June 2015 |access-date=2016-03-05}}

Ellis' second solo children's book, Du Iz Tak?, published in 2016, is written entirely in an invented "bug language".{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/73993-working-out-the-bugs-adventures-in-translating-carson-ellis-s-du-iz-tak.html|title=Working Out the Bugs: Adventures in Translating Carson Ellis's 'Du Iz Tak?'|website=www.publishersweekly.com|access-date=2019-09-26}} The book received a Caldecott Honor Award (2017){{Cite web |date=2017-01-23 |title=2017 Caldecott Medal: Winner & Honorees |url=https://www.brilliant-books.net/2017-caldecott-medal-winner-honorees |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=Brilliant Books}} and an E. B. White Read Aloud Award (2017).

In 2016, Ellis collaborated with Portland-based wallpaper studio Juju Papers on a wallpaper design titled Barn Owls and Hollyhocks. The design was inspired by Ellis' move to a small barn outside of Portland.{{Cite web |url=http://www.jujupapers.com/wp/2016/02/juju-papers-x-carson-ellis-new-artisanal-wallpapers/ |title=Juju Papers X Carson Ellis – New Artisanal Wallpapers |date=February 23, 2016 |website=Juju Papers |access-date=March 3, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160229224701/http://www.jujupapers.com/wp/2016/02/juju-papers-x-carson-ellis-new-artisanal-wallpapers/ |archive-date=February 29, 2016 }}

Ellis created the cover and interior illustrations for Meloy's 2017 middle grade book The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid, published by HarperCollins.{{Cite web|url=https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062342454/the-whiz-mob-and-the-grenadine-kid|title=The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid – Colin Meloy – Hardcover|website=HarperCollins Publishers: World-Leading Book Publisher|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-26}}

Ellis created illustrations for Susan Cooper's The Shortest Day, published in October 2019.

Carson Ellis is also an editorial illustrator and fine artist, having worked for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Poetry.

The Wildwood Chronicles, illustrated by Ellis and written by her husband, musician Colin Meloy, was a bestselling series for middle-grade readers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/books/wildwood-a-book-by-the-decemberists-colin-meloy.html|title='Wildwood,' a Book by the Decemberists' Colin Meloy|last=Heyman|first=Stephen|date=2011-10-11|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2016-03-05|issn=0362-4331}} When creating illustrations for the series, Ellis was inspired by Pauline Baynes, illustrator of The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as drawings in The Wind in the Willows.

• Home (Candlewick Press, 24 February 2015)
• Du Iz Tak? (Candlewick Press, 18 October 2016)
• In the Half Room (Candlewick Press, 13 October, 2020)

• The Mysterious Benedict Society series, written by Trenton Lee Stewart (Little, Brown)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society (1 April 2008)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (1 May 2008)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (6 October 2009)
• Mr. Benedict's Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums (11 October 2011)
• The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict (10 April 2012)
• The Wildwood Chronicles series, written by Colin Meloy (Balzer + Bray, a HarperCollins imprint)
• Wildwood (30 August 2011)
• Under Wildwood (25 September 2012)
• Wildwood Imperium (4 February 2014)

• The Composer Is Dead, written by Lemony Snicket (HarperCollins, 3 March 2009)
• The Beautiful Stories of Life, written by Cynthia Rylant (Harcourt Children's, 4 May 2009)
• Stagecoach Sal, written by Deborah Hopkinson (Hyperion, 4 September 2009)
• Dillweed's Revenge, written by Florence Parry Heide (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 6 September 2010)
• Illimat, board game created by Keith Baker and The Decemberists (2017)
• The Shortest Day, written by Susan Cooper (Candlewick Press, 22 October, 2019)
• What Is Love?, written by Mac Barnett (Chronicle Books, 2021)

Carson Ellis is Jewish. She is married to Decemberists singer Colin Meloy, whom she met in college while designing posters for his alt-country band Tarkio. She and Meloy have two children, Henry "Hank" Meloy and Milo Cannonball Meloy.{{cite web | url=https://twitter.com/colinmeloy/status/312751377988333569 | title=Meloy tweets about new addition to the Ellis & Meloy family | publisher=Twitter | date=March 15, 2013 | accessdate=October 21, 2013 | author=Meloy, Colin}} Both parents have spoken about their son Hank's diagnosis with Asperger's syndrome.

She lives on a farm outside Portland, Oregon with her family.{{Cite web|url=http://www.designsponge.com/2014/02/a-day-in-the-life-of-carson-ellis.html|title=A Day In The Life of Carson Ellis – Design*Sponge|website=www.designsponge.com|access-date=2019-09-26}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Portal|Children's literature}}

• {{official website }}
• [http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=2136 Interview by Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast], a blog featuring children's illustration – with many of Ellis's images
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110901074332/http://www.designsponge.com/2011/05/sights-sounds-carson-ellis.html Interview about her work] at Design Sponge
• [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-k-gibson/five-questions-for-carson_b_685593.html Five questions for Carson Ellis] at the Huffington Post
• {{LCAuth|n2006023945|Carson Ellis|8|}}

{{The Decemberists}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Carson}}

Category:1975 births

Category:Living people

Category:American children's book illustrators

Category:Artists from Portland, Oregon

Category:Artists from Vancouver

Category:American women illustrators

Category:20th-century American artists

Category:21st-century American artists

Category:University of Montana alumni

Category:American album-cover and concert-poster artists

Category:20th-century American women artists

Category:21st-century American women artists

Category:Caldecott Honor winners

Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing

Category:American women children's book illustrators

Category:Canadian women children's book illustrators