Ellen McMahon – School of Art

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Associate Dean

Professor, Art

Art Bldg, Room 207D
520-621-1493

MFA – Vermont College, MS – University of Arizona

Ellen McMahon uses a range of media (artist books, writing, painting, drawing, photography, design and video) to investigate the relationship between visual art, daily life, and the ways we frame and study social and environmental problems.

McMahon came to the University of Arizona in 1980 to study Scientific Illustration (MS in Biology 1983). After several years of professional experience as an illustrator and graphic designer, she received an MFA in visual art (Vermont College, 1996) and was hired in a tenure track position in the UofA School of Art. Between 1990 and 2005 her work addressed the social and cultural construction of motherhood and the politics of intimacy in the mother-child relationship. Since 2005, fueled by her conviction that art and design are foundational in effecting positive change, she has developed a number of projects that support individual creative inquiry among her peers and students through interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships with community organizations.

In 2007 McMahon received a Fulbright Fellowship to work as an artist/designer with the Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans in Mexico and presented her work as a delegate to the World Design Congress (ICOGRADA) in Cuba. From 2010-2012, she served as initiator and director of a collaborative faculty research project focused on regional water, which included 29 participants from art, design, humanities, the natural and social sciences, as well as city and regional water managers. The resulting book which McMahon art directed and co-edited, Ground|Water: Interdisciplinary Responses to a Dry River received national and international design awards and has been collected by over 40 public institutions worldwide.

McMahon’s artist books are in 15 public collections in several countries. Her visual work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions and in solo exhibitions “Redressing the Mother” at AIR Gallery in New York, “Maternal Matters” at Cal State San Marcos, and “In Nature | Of Nature | Perceptions of Place” at University of Wyoming. Her published writings include personal essays about motherhood, op-eds about design and the environment, and technical papers about scientific illustration. Her autobiographic essays are published in Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood (Seven Stories Press, 2002), The Oldest We’ve Ever Been: Seven True Stories of Midlife Transition (University of Arizona Press, 2008), and The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art (Demeter Press, 2010). Her design work is featured in Clean New World: Culture, Politics, and Graphic Design, (MIT Press, 2002) and Graphic Design: Sustainable Principles and Practices, (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016).

More:

http://www.ellenmcmahon.com

Recent Work

Change OVer Time

Artist: Ellen McMahon

Hemispherical Photographs

Prone to Collapse

Artist: Ellen McMahon

Cardboard, pine needles, video

Phenotypes (installation detail)

Artist: Ellen McMahon

Archival print mounted on aluminum

Genetic Drifters (from Phenotypes series)

Artist: Ellen McMahon

Archival print mounted on aluminum

Heterotic Sympatrics

Artist: Ellen McMahon

Heterotic Sympatrics

Lost Language of a Desert Sea (detail)

Artist: Ellen McMahon

Letterpress, collage

Lost Language of a Desert Sea (detail)

Artist: Ellen McMahon

LEtterpress, collage

A is for Anatomy

Artist: Ellen McMahon

Letterpress

Ground|Water: The Art, Design and Science of a Dry River

Artist: Ellen McMahon

Letterpress, offset printing

Ground|Water: The Art, Design and Science of a Dry River

Artist: Ellen McMahon

Letterpress, offset printing

University of Arizona School of Art

6 days ago

“Inside, Outside” is an impressive series of collages by School of Art student, Breanna Romero.
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Growing up I had a slight obsession with collecting Teen Vogue publications as well as anatomy textbooks. I was always drawn to the editorials within the magazines, but also the detailed and meticulous illustrations within the textbooks. This obsession would lead to myself finding beauty within the human body, its ability to contort and take numerous forms. Created through scans of my old magazines and textbooks, I wanted to combine the similarities I found into a photo spread of my own publication that meets in-between fashion magazine and informative medical textbook.
- @icedchaiwithoatmilk ... See MoreSee Less

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2 weeks ago

This gorgeous manipulated digital photograph is titled "Triangular Melons," and is by recent @uarizonaphoto MFA Alumna, Leah Netsky!
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My work considers the growing interaction between animal and plant life, science and technology. I use physical and digital manipulation of subjects to explore the human drive to edit, define, and control the organic. I have recently been working on a series of "future fruit" which play on genetic modification in fruit production. This image imagines how melons might be designed in the future.
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These beautiful photographs are from Tamrin Ingram who received her MFA from the Photography, Video and Imaging program here at the UArizona School of Art!
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These two photographs contain the shadow of my granny.
In one she photographs her youngest daughter (my mother, now passed) on a swing set, and the shadow of mother and daughter is cast on the background. In another the same shadow of Granny is cast upon the freshly dug grave of her husband. I was struck by these self-shadow portraits of her, both photographs are quite plain yet both seem to whisper something about heartache, parenthood, and loss. In one, a wife documents the final resting place of newly dead husband, in another a mother documents her daughter just after the death of father and husband, and on the edge of it all is myself, daughter and granddaughter left with only shadows and dirt and two haunting photographs, seeing them at a time long before they ever saw me. ... See MoreSee Less

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4 weeks ago

This fantastic illustrative piece is called SIMPLIFY by School of Art student, Caroline Berkey!
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“I would hope my illustrations speak more for themselves than any written statement would. I also wouldn't want to discourage any viewer from applying a personal meaning to my work, especially since the nuance of visual narrative is so special. This piece means a lot to me. I made this piece while experiencing the worst artist block I've felt, to my memory. I made this piece when I didn't want to make anything at all. I made this piece at the beginning of a global pandemic, when all of my goals and plans were flipped upside down, and I ashamedly felt relieved. I made this piece because I think it's funny and honest. S I M P L I F Y.” @caro.carlitos ... See MoreSee Less

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1 month ago

Congratulations to Alex Turner for his recognition in the 2020 Lens Culture Black and White Awards. Alex placed 1st in the Single Image Category for his beautiful image, “29 Humans (Smugglers) and 12 Horses , 1-Week Interval, Patagonia Mountains, AZ, 2019” from the series “Blind River”! ... See MoreSee Less

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Beautiful acrylic portrait from School of Art student Sara Al Dabbagh. This work features her rendition of a Sumerian Noblewoman in the desert of Sumer, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Sara is a third year Bachelor of Fine Arts student majoring in Studio Art with emphasis in Two-Dimensional studies.
“I am a woman from Iraq, and I have always desired to have myself be represented in art and modern culture. I made this piece, to show the beauty of Iraq.” @artist.sakalda ... See MoreSee Less

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