Ellen Greene is a Chicago artist who paints on vintage women's leather gloves. About her work, she says, "My recent work has focused on vintage women's gloves painted with reworked traditional western tattoo motifs and the visual tension between these two symbols. The gloves are symbols of a historical set of “ladylike” behavior that included modesty, purity and submissive attitudes. The tattoos in contrast speak a language of masculine behaviors. Traditional western tattoo narrative developed through sailor, and later, biker culture. These heroic and deviant imagery narratives leave out any authentic feminine expression. I seek to rework these traditional motifs to find a voice for my personal experiences as a heavily tattooed woman in the traditional role of wife and mother. I use vintage objects, photography and painting to purge emotional static from daily living. I am in a constant conversation through objects with my body, my world, pop culture, gender politics and caregiving."