Ellen Spijkstra was educated at the
Academie Minerva in
Groningen. In 1980 she moved to Curaçao with her husband, Eric de Brabander. In 1985–1986 she took a summer course in glassblowing at the
Rochester Institute of Technology in the
Rochester, New York metropolitan area, followed by theory courses in
clay and
glaze studies and
kiln construction as part of the
Master of Fine Arts Ceramics program. In 1991 she completed a photography course at the
New York Institute of Photography. Spijkstra draws much of her inspiration from Curaçao's natural environment. She combines her ceramics with rock and
coral fragments and integrates photos of corals in her ceramics. Her main themes are land and water, life and decay. She creates ceramic pieces on a variety of scales, ranging from small to monumental, and prefers to work on series. Spijkstra has taught at, among others, the Instituto Buena Bista in Curaçao, the Ateliers '89 in
Aruba and the Taller Escuela Arte Fuego in
Caracas. As an
artist-in-residence she worked at the Taller Varadero in
Cuba (seventh Havana Biennale), the Resen International Ceramic Colony in
Resen and the Shangyu Celadon Modern International Ceramic Center in
Shangyu, China. Spijkstra's work is held, among other museums, in the collection of the
Curaçaosch Museum. She is a member of the
International Academy of Ceramics. ==Publications==