Meats oozing red liquid…tendons…skinned creatures stretched-out in a deli case. These images formed the nightmares of artist Dana Ellyn’s childhood. Today, separated by the distance of years and a veg diet, Dana Ellyn’s paintings lend a darkly humorous twist to the subject of our consumption and use of animals.
Ellyn invites viewers to reconsider the every day. Pieces give a new meaning to ubiquitous phrases, lending a comically sinister meaning to “baby back ribs” and turning “pig in a blanket” on its head. Dana Ellyn’s paintings are both meaty (intellectually) and meat-free (morally.) They stir your conscience and wake up your scruple base.
Ellyn is a DC resident and full-time painter who lives and paints in her studio in a subsidized artist housing unit in downtown Washington DC. Her work is exemplified by a risk-taking vision, strong content, and colorful critiques of social norms.
Her style sits on the fence between social realism and expressionism.
And it moves us without thinking twice.
Learn more about Dana and buy her work here.
15% of painting sales will be donated to The Kindness Collective.