Women United ART PRIZE 2023
Painting & Drawing Category
finalist

ARTIST BIO

Ellen Starr Lyon, b. 1974 in Columbus, Indiana. Lyon is a figurative painter focusing on modern portraiture that revolves around feminism, motherhood, and coming of age. Her naturalist painting style incorporates a colorful palette and multiple thin, luminous layers capturing her models in natural light. Lyon uses her own photography to catch unguarded moments that are translated into oil paintings showing glimpses of emotion on the faces of those around her. Lyon champions vulnerability as strength while showing it as our common language. Her Red Glove Series depicts her teenage daughter wearing bright red rubber gloves and a defiant expression to talk about the next generations’ fight for reproductive rights. She has work in the permanent collection of the Evansville Museum and Indiana University and has been invited to the Pouch Cove Artist Residency in July of 2024.

ARTIST STATEMENT

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 nuance that other subjects cannot. I focus on my friends and family, people whose faces I know how to read. I have been especially fascinated by painting my teens. It is a way for me to process the experience of motherhood and document these emotionally charged but fleeting years. With that comes the need to explore and portray my experience of being woman/wife/mother. My roles are ever-changing, and I use self-portraiture to reflect that. I also make work about issues that are important to me using the mirror of other women. An issue that continually comes to the surface for me is vulnerability. It is important to me as an artist and in my relationships, to be vulnerable. I want to show that in others and want to champion the idea that vulnerability is strength. My goal is to weave these topics into compelling, timely paintings depicting their relevance in quiet, domestic imagery.

Bloomington, IN / United States