Ellen Langford is a southern artist. Native to Mississippi, Langford has pursued academic studies in her craft in New York, San Francisco, DC and Italy, among other places. It was in returning to her Deep South home, however, that her work took on its recognizable narrative quality.

Though now a full-time artist, Langford worked for years as a paramedic in central Mississippi. She became heavily influenced by the often tender narratives of her patients’ stories, as well as the simple living structures, yards peopled with chickens and dogs of this mostly poor, rural world.

As a parent of a young boy, and owner of chickens and dogs, Langford also incorporates children and animals into her compositions as she finds even more tenderness and vulnerability in their movements, as well as joy and adventure.

Langford’s painting process involves layers of paint, often sanded away and then glazed over, searching for shape and pattern, color and texture, to build the story worlds her figures inhabit.