About the ARtist

Natalie Zelman is a visual artist who works in a variety of media, her specialties being ceramics, cosplay, fibers, and metals. She found her passion for art at a young age and earned her BFA in Studio Art with concentrations in ceramics and sculpture from Millikin University in Decatur, IL in 2017. In 2019, she earned her MA in ceramics from Bradley University in Peoria, IL. She has participated in multiple group exhibitions through Millikin and at Blue Connection Gallery in Decatur, IL, and completed her BFA exhibition with fellow Millikin students.

She has been cosplaying since 2015 and specializes in needlework and fantasy characters. She has competed with her cosplay at multiple conventions, most recently at the Crown Championships of Cosplay at C2E2 in Chicago, IL in March of 2024. Her cosplaying has led her to a career in theater, working now in the costume shop at the Paramount Theater in Aurora, IL. An academic as well as an artist, she has a passion for art history and through the James Millikin Scholar program has done extensive research on the subject of women as subject matter in grotesque art. In her free time, she continues to create, pursuing writing and music.