Ellen Starr Lyon

We are hardwired to read and interpret the human face. We are driven to look at faces and easily ascribe emotion to expressions, including those of complete strangers. Because of this, painting faces can show the subtlety of emotion with a nuance that other subjects cannot. 

 

Ellen Starr Lyon’s practice is distinctly personal, she focuses on her friends and family, people whose faces she knows how to read. This idea also extends to an analysis of herself; she is fascinated by painting her teen years and unpacking the experiences and moments that were formative in the construction of her current identity. Returning to visions of herself as an adolescent in particular, helps the artist to excavate routes to processing her present experience of motherhood. Through gazing with an obsessive reverie on fleeting yet charged memories, she comes to understand herself as a woman, a wife and a mother. 

 

Looking outside herself, Lyon also explores issues that are important to her using the other women as a mirror. She is particularly fascinated by vulnerability. She meditates on the importance of vulnerability as an artist and an individual, aiming to champion the idea that it is a route to strength. In her work, these topics are weaved into compelling, timely and captivating paintings that make grand statements through quiet, quotidian and domestic imagery.