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One of Dana Ellyn's vegan-themed paintings

(George Lenker photo)

They met just a month before 9/11, got married in one of the worst snowstorms in Washington D.C. history, and both create gripping but sometimes unsettling paintings.

But those things just add to Dana Ellyn and Matt Sesow's relationship. And after all, they are both artists and vegans. The D.C.-based couple currently has an exhibit at F.O.E. Gallery in Northampton.

While both Ellyn and Sesow are artists in their own rights, they exhibit together fairly often, which only makes sense. While each has a distinct style, their works actually complement each other quite well.

"I prefer to show with Dana. She is my anchor and really helps make the shows with her fun," Sesow said. "My solo shows are very intense for me and can be quite exhausting, yet they are necessary and very rewarding."

"The birds and a bee" by Matt Sesow

Ellyn took her first big step in art when she was 16 and was accepted in to a summer art program at Wesleyan University called The Center for Creative Youth (CCY).

"That summer at CCY I truly knew that art was something I wanted to pursue," she said. "But not just art. I am a self-declared nerd too. Second to art, I simply loved studying and still do. It was an activity I reveled in while ensconced in the quiet sanctuary of my bedroom. I never had any interest in going to art school. My plan was to get in to a great university."

Which she did: George Washington University where she majored in Art History & Fine Art. After graduating, she worked at a few day jobs until quitting to pursue art full time in 2002.

Sesow's story is a bit different. He did not study art in college, but instead got a degree in software engineering. He got into painting through a fib he told at a party.

"The night I started painting in 1994, with real paint supplies, was during a first date, confronted by a group house full of Washington, D.C. artists asking me if I knew how to paint. I lied and said ‘yes,'" he said. "It’s 20 years later now, and I’m still painting most every day, I have no idea what that group house full of artists are doing now."

As far as the art itself, Sesow's work explodes off the canvas, while Ellyn's draws the viewer in with subtlety. But both defer to each other in a way that is sincere and charming.

"When I started painting full time in 2002 I finally had the time and luxury to experiment and make mistakes," Ellyn said. "Matt and I would often paint together and he definitely pushed me to loosen up. Much of his influence shows up quite obviously in some of my paintings from those early years."

Sesow, however, calls his wife a "much better painter." Part of his inspiration comes from his disability: his left arm was severed in a childhood accident in 1974.

"Painting offered me a new language to express my feelings, my emotions, and a tool to relate some of the unsaid things I’ve felt about being disabled," he said. "I don’t consider myself a particularly good painter. I think part of what makes my work successful is that I am not afraid to make mistakes, a lot of mistakes. I don’t have the voice of a teacher or authoritarian figure in my head telling me not to express something. The aim with my art is to be different and distinguishable from the noise of other artists."

Ellyn's work begins in a more meditative place.

"My process involves a lot of study, a lot of quiet–door closed," she said. "I can take as much time researching and pondering a painting concept as I do creating it. Every step of the process is equally important to me."

But despite its quiet beginnings, her art is known for being controversial, and has even been pulled from shows for that reason. She often centers her work around her veganism, creating riveting but disquieting depictions of people–often children–and animals.

"Once I started to speak my mind on canvas, I couldn't stop myself," she said. "I became kind of known for it."

Ellyn inspired Sesow to become a vegan, but he was actual committed to a meatless diet long before his wife, who said that although she's always been a vegetarian at heart, only gave up meat for good after meeting Sesow.

"I’ve been a vegetarian since 1996 when a doctor told me I have high cholesterol," Sesow said. "I wrote a paper on vegetarianism and animal cruelty after reading 'Animal Liberation' by Pete Singer in 1986 at college. That book stuck with me and made the decision to do it stick. Recently Dana has inspired me to be a vegan. It just gets better. Thank goodness for nutritional yeast and Dana’s cooking skills."

Ellyn admits she is a good cook.

"Matt told me the other day that he loved my vegan cheese more than he loved me. But I think that was the beer talking," she said with a smile.