"Her work probes the performance of femininity: the resilience hidden beneath the veneer of fragility, the clockwork domestic routines that cloak complex inner lives, and the choreographed displays of elegance that must be scrubbed of the strife that underlies them. Hanson’s process involves sketching first in charcoal on elastic jersey cotton, then pulling the underpainting on fabric to create distortions in the figure."
"The project also references Laurie Dann, a woman with an indirect connection to Debi Thomas, who carried out a shooting just a few months after the Olympics that same year. Stretched and manipulated, Hanson’s paintings highlight the distortions of reality and history: the tension between internal expectations and external judgment, and the looming threat of unraveling under the pressure of perfection."
Ellen R Hanson received a BA in Painting and Art History from Bennington College and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work probes the performance of femininity, revealing resilience beneath fragility, domestic routines that mask complex inner lives, and choreographed elegance that conceals underlying strife. Hanson sketches in charcoal on elastic jersey cotton, pulls the underpainting to distort figures, then paints in oil, smoothing brushstrokes and adding decorative hints to suggest a perfect surface. The series Battle of the Carmens responds to the media rivalry between Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas at the 1988 Calgary Olympics and references Laurie Dann, emphasizing distortions of reality and the pressure of perfection.
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