ARTIST STATEMENT
This image is from the series “A Life Undone,” a visual exploration of loss, memory, and life through the artifacts left behind by Mahaffy’s father. Mahaffy’s father was a woodworker, carpenter, and gunsmith. As she sifted through what remained after his death, she gleaned connections to the past with handwritten labels and diaries. As a queer person, Mahaffy was never comfortable “coming out” to him and became estranged in fear of potential rage. His house remains empty as there is no means to renovate or restore running water. Questions still haunt Mahaffy: What does one need to live a life alone? What do we do with what remains?
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ellen Mahaffy grew up in a rural town just twenty miles south of Rochester, New York. She earned her BFA in photography from Maryland Institute College of Art (1987). In 1993 she earned her MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop, which was affiliated with State University of New York Brockport. Her Visual Studies degree focused on artists’ books, multimedia, and photography. Currently, she is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire teaching visual communication and photography for the Department of Communication and Journalism. Mahaffy’s artistic interests are surreal landscapes, abstracts, still life, and artists’ books. Her current work circles back to an earlier project, Nothing Was Ever Said (1993), which explored familial relationship with her Presbyterian Minister grandfather and his adopted son, her father. Her father’s passing in 2019 inspired her to resume an investigation of her familial roots, and rethink ideological differences from sexuality to gender to religion and belonging. Mahaffy’s work has been shown in a several solo shows, group exhibitions, and variety of juried shows. Among the notable jurors are Jess Dugan, Joyce Tenneson, Carol Erb, Fran Forman, and Julian Cox. Her latest work, Worn By My Father, received best of show at Confluence of Art: Annual Exhibition (2022). She also received first place at both Abstracted (year) and the National Juried Photography Exhibition (year) at 1212 Gallery. Recently, she was awarded an internal university grant to support her ongoing project, A Life Undone.
© Ellen Mahaffy