I had the privilege of knowing Shaun for many years. When he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer many years ago, we never knew how long he would be with us, so we enjoyed every minute of his boundless creativity with theatre sets, dancing, acting, art making, all of it! We also enjoyed the everyday things, like his coaching soccer and raising his 3 boys in the San Bernardino Mountains where we raised our two sons. We got 15 good years with Shaun before he lost his battle to cancer. Thanks for being such a great friend and artist!
Shaun Ellsworth was an award-winning painter and ceramist. Shaun began expressing himself through sewing as he sewed his Halloween costumes each year. This turned to a love of fashion design. He started designing and creating his own clothing and opened a clothing store, Hogwash, in Yucaipa. He enjoyed tie-dying and working with denim as he patched together jackets and dresses. He decided to go to college to earn a degree in business but quickly realized he wanted to study art. He enjoyed pencil drawing, acrylic painting, and multimedia art. He won several awards for his paintings in Honolulu. His painting style was highly influenced by southwestern art, especially John Nieto’s work which he saw in galleries while visiting Sedona, Arizona on his honeymoon. In 1996, he earned his BFA at Brigham Young University-Hawaii with an emphasis in painting, however, his real love was ceramics. He loved hand-building with clay and enjoyed many styles of firing, but he had a passion for Japanese wood-firing. In 1997, he studied ceramics and the art of wood-firing as an apprentice in Japan. He loved the natural glazes made by the wood melting onto the ceramics. He had his own gallery show in Japan highlighting his ceramics and paintings. Professionally, Shaun owned his own business for many years providing graphic design, web design, and advertising services to small businesses. In 2009 Shaun was featured in the San Bernardino Sun newspaper after completing a challenge he created for himself. Shaun created 100 paintings in 100 days. Much of this art was inspired by photos his brother took after a trip to Europe.
Shaun passed away in 2017 but his creativity and talent live on in his three sons, Orson, Spencer, and Cooper. Cooper is an aspiring ceramist. Shaun was born in Upland and raised in Fontana. He raised his sons with his wife, Christina, in the San Bernardino Mountains.