Our homes represent so much to us—family, stability, security, sanctuary. We probably all remember our childhood home. Now, local fabric artist Ellen November offers a way to memorialize your home with its portrait in fabric, fiber, and thread. The goal is to create an artwork that brings peaceful feelings about your special place.
Though she’s created many various series of work, she says there’s something especially rewarding about creating home portraits for people.
“I enjoy it so much,” November said over coffee. “A dear friend of mine lost her home in the Palisades Fire, and they have really nice photos of the house. So I got her permission [to create her home’s portrait] because it’s such a delicate situation.”
Her friend’s home and the entire neighborhood burned to the ground. There was nothing left. The fire was devastating, but creating the portrait proved cathartic for both the artist and recipient.
“It was the most enjoyable project I’ve ever done,” November said. “Fulfilling. Because it was for a friend. It was giving her something nobody else could.”
She’s done several other home portraits, and each one comes with a story.
“Another one I did was in Shaker Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland,” she explained. “My aunt and uncle lived across from this family, and they were selling their house, retiring. They’re older, in their 80s, and they’d lived there 50 years. And so, she asked me [if] would I do one for them. I really enjoy the personalization of the art, the meaningfulness. And that’s what gives me the most fulfillment.
“I did a lovely piece for a local couple here in SLO, who built their home, and their long-lived pet had just passed away during the process of making a piece, and I asked them, ‘Do you want to still incorporate,’ I think her name was Molly, ‘into the piece?’ And they said, ‘Oh, absolutely.’ So Molly’s standing at attention on the side, keeping watch over the house, and they just love it.”
Many of the home portraits she creates include a front view of the house as well as an aerial view and the home’s location on a map.
Including the cartography stemmed from another ongoing series she calls Thomas Guides, the formerly ubiquitous paperback, spiral-bound, detailed map books of various large metropolitan areas.
November, formerly a 45-year resident of Los Angeles before relocating to SLO nine years ago, knows the Thomas Guide well.
“It used to be in LA, nobody would leave their driveway without one, right? So, I was doing a lot of photography. I lived in a very beautiful area in LA called Palos Verdes on the ocean. And I’ve always been interested in maps, cartography. They’re very graphic—a graphic element.
“So, I wanted to combine the photos with the map,” she continued, “and so I started not knowing what I was doing, but then I learned of this woman, Valerie Goodwin, who is an architect, quilter, and architecture professor. She wrote a book [Art Quilt Maps: Capture a Sense of Place with Fiber Collage—A Visual Guide] about combining quilts with maps. And so, I got a chance to study with her in Tahoe for a week, and that was the springboard into having an aerial view, a face-on view, scaling, layering.”
November discovered that the now obsolete Thomas Guides—thanks, GPS—were easy to come by.
“I was going to these estate sales and buying the Thomas Guide for a buck, and so I got the idea to start in the upper quadrant in LA County, in Malibu, and work my way down. And I did. And so, each piece represented that map. And from there, I just went into different areas. I just really enjoy it.”
Another ongoing series November has been creating is a series of LA landmarks such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, Griffith Park Observatory, Angels Flight, the LA skyline, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and others.
Her current work, including the home portraits, encapsulates and combines all her creative skills and endeavors.
“I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration at Arts Center in LA,” she noted, “and I was always interested in photography, but I started sewing at age 10. And I got to a point in my life where I wanted to combine my sewing with my art.”
Working from photos supplied by the client guarantees that every portrait is one-of-a-kind. She can even incorporate a favorite tree, flower, or pet. She uses an inkjet printer to transfer a photo onto fabric. She sources her materials from various places.
“I give myself a lot of [artistic] license. I was using upcycled men’s shirts I’d get a Goodwill, with very high-level cotton, for background. I create my layout, with scaling, and then I create a pattern out of tissue, and then I cut the pieces out, and then with the tissue overlay, I sew. It’s a matter of layering. I had a friend who’s an art director ask me, ‘You plan the whole thing out ahead of time, right?’ And I said, ‘No,’ and he couldn’t understand that. Because it can change.”
Like a jazz musician, November’s creative process leaves room for improvisation. She knows where the song starts and ends, and what the basic melody is, but how she gets there is driven by the serendipity of creation. It takes November about a month to complete a home portrait because she works on multiple pieces at once.
“I did a portrait of my home that I lived in for 32 years, and I would never sell that. That is so meaningful to me, just looking at it. It just reminds me of all the good experiences we had there, how beautiful it was. Also, I’ll tell you, I’ve been here nine years. There’s a part of me that’s still a little homesick. Not for the congestion of LA, but because everything was so familiar.” Δ
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 3-13, 2025.