Ella Watson

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. Even as college students, the three kept the family together, supported each other, and surrounded Ella with warmth, encouragement, and love. After a fairly normal upbringing, Ella received two BFA’s from Virginia Commonwealth University in Painting & Printmaking and Sculpture & Extended Media.

Ella was born with a liver disease called Biliary Atresia. At the age of 26, her disease returned with a vengeance. She moved to NYC to live with her family and received treatment at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. For two years, Ella roamed the city on Morphine, Dilaudid, and with painful percutaneous bile drains (similar to ostomy bags.) During these two years while waiting for an organ, she created the works that were later compiled into Liverwurst: Work made at the onset of end-stage liver failure until live-donor organ transplant. With a liver nowhere in sight, in June 2009, her sister Jen bravely donated 1/2 of her liver. Within six weeks, the half liver grew to roughly 90% of its original size. After the transplant, Ella worked as an artist, fabricator, and installer in NYC.

In 2011, Ella married her husband, Ryan, whom she fell in love with over Google chat while waiting for the transplant. After the

birth of their son, Auggie, in 2012, the small family moved to Montana.

Ella is doing fine, but occasionally her condition (including side-effects of medications, infections, etc.) take her away from her practice. Sometimes, like the multitudes of other modern women artists, sometimes it is a job and family that have to come first. Nevertheless, Ella always returns to the canvas, thirstier, more diligent, and more focused than before.

From 2015- 2020, Ella was the Gallery Director for the School of Art at Montana State University, overseeing the Helen E. Copeland Gallery, Waller-Yoblonsky Gallery, and the School of Art Archives. She is also a board member of SLAM-- a local organization that hosts festivals, scholarships, and artist installations in Bozeman. Her work has been shown in NYC, Virginia, Missoula, and China with commissions in the US, Vancouver, and Australia.

Through the pandemic, Ella has been making work when possible, taking care of her son during remote learning, and enjoying the company of her family. Because of her immunosuppressed condition and the polarization of mask-wearing, she mostly remained at home, away from the public for two years. The rampant issue of ableism in the US has become a personal challenge as her condition has become more “visible.” With this development, themes about her health, body, and past traumas are emerging within her work.