Elizabeth McClancy made her debut as a painter with a featured exhibition at Chicago's renowned 2008 ARTropolis celebration of the arts. An artist/phenom who is entirely self-taught, this first solo exhibition, titled Democratic Principles, featured 19 portrait paintings of contemporary progressive leaders, accompanied by textual excerpts from essays by each portrait subject on a founding ideal of American democracy and its application in the 21st century. Her book, Democratic Principles (Hard Press Editions, 2008), which contains the complete essays as well as full color plates of all the paintings, is also the catalog for the show. Other showings are planned for New York City and Washington, DC, in the coming months.

Pace Prints (NY, NY) has created a limited edition print of her new painting of President Obama.

Her work and further information is at www.elizabethmcclancy.com.