Q: Okay – first what is this amazing color on your wall? It’s not red it’s not orange – it’s the best of both.
A: Ellie: It’s called “Spiritual Warrior” isn’t it good!
Q: When did you meet and how long have you been together?
A: Ellie: We met in 2013 at a friends leaving dinner in Nairobi. Tony had been in Nairobi for 6-weeks and was supposed to be on a date that night, and it was my second weekend in Nairobi and I knew almost no one.
It’s a total surprise that we met. We’ve been together ever since, three years of which were long distance (Tony was here and I was in Kenya). We got married in 2017 and I relocated here later that year.
Q: What was the first piece you collected?
A: Ellie: These two large works on canvas – they were the first big money we ever spent on art, they were like $1,000 or something. When I relocated it took about 18 months for them to get here. Some of my stuff went missing. But thankfully they arrived finally. That was one of the most stressful things I’ve ever done.
Q: How many pieces do you estimate to be in your art collection?
A: Oh gosh! Hmmmmm 40-50 pieces (honestly it could be more)? I love prints, oils and acrylic paintings, and textiles. We’ve collected from all over the world, with an emphasis on places that mean something special to us like Nairobi, Seattle, Scotland (where I’m from), and Philly (where Tony’s from), and fav travel spots like Cape Town, Mumbai, and Mexico City. I lean toward abstract, intersectional feminist pieces with some humour and wit thrown in, and straight up beauty. We have a lot of my mum’s old off-cuts of fabric framed up to round out our collection.