"Malleable" Painting

Ella Watson (b. 1983 Bethesda, MD) is an American artist, currently living in Bozeman, Montana. At the age of nine, Ella was orphaned after the death of her parents. She was raised in Blacksburg, Virginia, the ward of her older brother, Bruce, and with the guidance of her older sisters, Jen and Susan. After a fairly normal upbringing despite all things, Ella received two BFA’s from Virginia Commonwealth University in Painting & Printmaking and Sculpture & Extended Media. At the age of 26, Ella became sick due to a disease she was born with, Biliary Atresia. Ella moved to NYC to live with her family and received treatment at New York Presbyterian Hospital. In June 2009, Ella received a live-donor liver transplant in which her sister Jen gave her half of her liver. Ella is the author of Liverwurst: Work made at the onset of end-stage liver failure until live-donor organ transplant, an anthology of images and writings that she created while waiting for an organ. After the transplant, Ella worked as an artist, fabricator, and installer in NYC. In 2011, Ella married her husband and after the birth of their child in 2012, moved to Montana. From 2015 – 2020, Ella served as the Gallery Director for the School of Art at Montana State University. She is also a board member of SLAM. Her work has been shown in NYC, Virginia, Missoula, and China with commissions in Vancouver and Australia; and throughout Montana in the Yellowstone Art Museum, the Paris Gibson Center for the Arts, The Holter Museum of Art, and the Emerson Cultural Center.