Q&A: 'Driven' in Bethesda

ONE COULD SAY that Dana Ellyn and Matt Sesow create site-specific paintings. In the case of "Driven," an exhibition at Gallery Neptune, the D.C.-based artists were asked not to make works to fit the gallery's space but the gallery's neighborhood — traffic-choked, there's-no-parking Bethesda. The result is a series of colorful, comic, eerie, insightful paintings about the vehicular madness that is the modern driving experience. Express talked with Ellyn, whose "Driving Miss Crazy" is at right, and Sesow about the exhibition.

EXPRESS: How did this show come about?
MATT SESOW: What Elyse [Harrison, the gallery’s owner] asked us to do was to create paintings based on our opinions on the car culture. We basically worked on it for about two months, creating work for the show. And I guess one of the funny things worth mentioning is that neither Dana nor I have cars.

EXPRESS: Wha?
SESOW: Yeah, we both used to have cars of course but in order to become full-time painters we needed to reduce expenses.

EXPRESS: Was road rage the first place you went to with this assignment, after which you widened your range?
DANA ELLYN: For me. it didn't come from a place of anger, I started off with almost a comical view of it — just a commentary from all points of view. Elise's original view was to talk about parking tickets, because apparently Bethesda has these horrible parking problems, and Matt and I went up there, where we had dinner and hung out and just observed the culture.

SESOW: If someone parks illegally in front of a building, so my take on it was more like, well, maybe parking tickets aren't that bad an idea. Also, I have a physical disability, and I don't know if you've ever seen anyone just drive into a handicapped space …

EXPRESS:Oh, yes. Where do your other inspirations come from?
SESOW: A lot of my Shriners' stuff came from is, I grew up in the Midwest where the Shriners are really big, and they drive around in those little cars. Dana and I completed around 60 paintings for the show, and only 15 or so of them made it into the show, so we have a lot more in the series.
ELLYN: We are both pretty project-oriented, since we got this assignment some months ago.

EXPRESS: You both sound awfully hard-working.
SESOW: Our next project is called "31 Days in July." We each independently create a painting, one a day. We'll be inspired by The Washington Post, just taking off from what the news is that day. Get up, read the paper, start the painting.

EXPRESS: That sounds … exhausting.
SESOW: I do a 30-by-40 inch painting for each day, so they're pretty huge. We think it's really important to document the times we live in; that's what the project's perfect for. We're serious about the idea of paintings that have a story or make people think or talk about it. We have a responsibility to our time.

» Gallery Neptune, 4808 Auburn Ave, Bethesda; through July 1, 301-718-0809 (Bethesda)