the Mona Lisa Project
Ellen Berman
Ellen Berman paints domestic still lives. Her subjects are the everyday objects of the kitchen, the table, the studio, the garden–portraits of the small bits which make up the whole of life. Her paintings are about the observation of daily life, of the ordinary, and about how close attention to the ordinary can be of significance.
She has been painting for 25 years and has exhibited her work since 1985 in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums in throughout the U.S. She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award and has been a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. McMurtrey Gallery in Houston, TX and Conduit Gallery in Dallas, TX represent her work; she will have a one-person show at Conduit Gallery opening in June of this year.
I'm intrigued by the Mona Lisa Project and happy to be participating in it because of the generosity of Rino's collaborative gesture. I pity Mona Lisa, whose image has become so familiar that we can no longer even really see it, and I'm taking this as an opportunity to pay some attention to her.
© Rino Pizzi 2010