Ellen Goldschmidt lives and works in Portland, Oregon, where she is represented by Blackfish Gallery. She earned a degree in drawing and painting from Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2000. Before studying art, Goldschmidt was a journalist and philosophy major at Colorado College, where her thesis explored how the mind/body problem resolves in aesthetic experience. Her early art work touched on philosophical themes and showcased her skills as a colorist.
Described in a 2010 Oregonian review by critic D.K. Row as “one of the more clear-minded, thoughtful artists I’ve encountered in a long time,” Goldschmidt has shifted focus in the last six years from philosophical concerns to a more physically-grounded practice that includes the depiction of human emotion. She describes her latest body of work, Hot Lava: Family Pictures, as "my attempt to create, in the language of paint, a partial memoir of my emotional life."
Goldschmidt's work has appeared at the Tacoma Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum Gallery, The Arts Center in Corvallis, OR and the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center in Portland, among other venues. She received a Regional Arts and Culture Commission grant for a sculptural installation, as part of a 4-person artist collaborative, and won grant support from Burdock Burn Art Resources to produce The Narrative Impulse: An Evening of Visual Art, Writing and Readings,