MILWAUKEE — I’ve done stories on tons of different artists—abstract painters, wood artists, musicians. You name it, I’ve done it. But one day, I was in the depths of the internet, and something caught my eye. I found a person who sews images of dive bar bathrooms, and I just had to learn more.
It started with the Roman Coin bathroom in Milwaukee. Then she did a Summerfest bathroom, Paddy's Pub, High Dive, and a few others. The next thing Ella Clemons knew, her dive bar images were being featured at the Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee.
“I feel like everyone was kind of rocking with it here in Milwaukee," Clemons, a fiber artist, said.
The 23-year-old, who is also a bartender, works out of a Bay View studio. It's an old cream city brick building that has turned into artist's workspaces.
“I couldn’t imagine myself doing a 9-to-5 or something like that. I just don’t think I’m built that way. I don’t know. I want to create," she said.
It takes Clemons about 10 hours to sew a bathroom. She does commissions. Prices start around $200. That got me thinking - what bathroom would I want? I'm thinking of Hosed on Brady or the bathrooms at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan which are super artistic.
So you may be thinking: dive bar bathrooms? It’s a little strange. It’s a little dirty. But there’s a beauty in the mundane. Clemons is forcing us to look at something we’ve seen before but in a new way.
“I like people to see something and be like, ‘I definitely know what that is.’ And I think people think it’s kind of funny to see it in fabric form, and I like it too. And it brings—I don’t know—it brings a whimsy to it, I guess," she said.
She also made a series on highway billboards—you know, personal injury lawyers, religious billboards, fireworks advertisements, and adult store signs. Clemons is inspired by, “mundane day-to-day things that I feel I want to create."
The UW-Milwaukee graduate has been featured in two galleries. She has a good idea for her next series too - sewing strange Facebook Marketplace listings. Beyond that, she has big dreams.
“I would love to make art full-time. That’s a huge goal of mine.”
That is why in 2025, you can find her at her studio sewing dive bar bathrooms, highway signs, Facebook Marketplace listings, or something else just as fun and weird.
“It’s something I could be happy doing, like, forever. I could keep doing it. There’s always going to be more stuff to create," Clemons said.
To see more of her work or request a commission, send her a message on Instagram.
Watch Ella Clemons' story here...
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