Tranquility du Jour #359: Artistic Activism
Tranquility du Jour
Kimberly Wilson
4.6 • 554 Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2015
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An interview with Dana Ellyn on Artistic Activism. Hear her transition from suburban wife to full-time artist, advice to aspiring artists, peek into her exhibit Speciesism, and learn the art history-inspired story behind my new pig painting.
Featured Guest
Dana 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. Ellyn committed herself to full-time status in 2002 when she decided to leave her corporate job and pursue painting. Her work is exemplified by a risk-taking vision, strong content, and colorful critiques of social norms.
Ellyn's style sits on the fence between social realism and expressionism. Having spent her childhood and college years honing her skills and striving to be technically correct, during the past 12 years she has tasked herself with unlearning those restrictive habits. Ellyn strives to infuse more emotion and meaning in to each new painting she creates.
Ellyn's paintings have stories to tell and opinions to profess. She delivers hard slaps to myths of all kinds - from religion, to politics to what it means to be a woman. Ellyn's goal is to employ humor when holding a subject up to her artistic scrutiny. But, humor is as subjective as art and Ellyn's brand of humor has tended to be a polarizing factor in her art. Love it or hate it, she definitely starts a dialogue.
From childhood until about the age of 30, Ellyn was quiet and reserved. She has now found her voice and she is making up for lost time.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Tranquility DeJure, December 21st, 2015. |
| 0:09.3 | Bonjour, this is Kimberly Wilson, and happy, happy holidays. |
| 0:13.5 | Welcome to the 359th edition of Tranquility DeJure. |
| 0:19.2 | Today's show is a fun interview with the lovely artist Dana Ellen on artistic activism. |
| 0:26.1 | Hear her transition from suburban wife to full-time artist, advice to aspiring artists, |
| 0:34.6 | peek into her exhibit speciesism, and learn art history inspired story behind my new pig painting by her. |
| 0:44.4 | So a big thank you for following along and tuning in to Tranquility DeJure, |
| 0:50.0 | particularly over the past couple months as I've been doing these weekly to get out some |
| 0:54.0 | pretty fabulous shows to people, as I've been doing these weekly to get out some pretty |
| 0:54.7 | fabulous shows to people as I know that you may be on the road and traveling and eating a little |
| 1:00.5 | dose of tranquility and entertainment before you interact with family or deal with all the travels |
| 1:06.4 | and the traffic and delayed flights and things that can come along with travel this time of the year. |
| 1:13.5 | So I hope this has been helpful. |
| 1:15.1 | And the new year, we will return to our every other week format that we've been doing the majority of our 10 years of podcasting. |
| 1:23.1 | So a big thank you for everyone who's been following along, tuning in, and enjoying these weekly shows. |
| 1:29.8 | Dana Ellen is a D.C. resident and full-time painter who lives and paints in her studio in a |
| 1:35.9 | subsidized artist housing unit in downtown D.C. She committed herself to full-time status in 2002 |
| 1:43.4 | when she decided to leave her corporate job |
| 1:46.0 | and pursue painting. Her work is exemplified by risk-taking vision, strong content, and |
| 1:52.6 | colorful critiques of social norms. Ellen's style sits on the fence between social realism |
| 1:59.2 | and expressionism. Having spent her childhood |
| 2:02.7 | in college years, honing her skills and striving to be technically correct, during the past |
... |
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