Ellen Mansfield
About
Born Deaf in Manhattan, New York but grew up in New Jersey for 7 years. Went to public school where Ellen learned poorly without sign language and interpreters. Spent all summers in Goldens Bridge countyside, north of New York City. She earned a BFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Ellen has led a life filled with art and experiences with a background in drawing, painting, batik, ceramics, and many other media that have brought her onto her current journey.
When she moved to Maryland, she began to recognize just how much her Deaf identity had been part of her artwork. Life was starting to blossom as she was surrounded by Deaf culture and sign language, which developed increasingly colorful images including watercolors , oil paintings and tile paintings in her artwork.
Ellen had commissions for handpainted tiles for mural decorations, kitchen backsplashes, fireplace mantel surroundings, and murals behind ranges for past 23 years. She led many workshops in ceramics, drawings and paintings for over 250 Deaf children, hearing children of Deaf parents, and Deaf adults.
Ellen keeps a home studio called Ellen’s TileStroke Studio in Frederick. The studio has a kiln for firing both low and high fire tiles from greenware to final glazing in the range of 1922 and 2174 degrees.
She works in a variety of aesthetic and technical styles including sculpted relief, carved plaster blocks, tile presses and mosaic tiles. All the tiles are finished in a wide palate of earthenware and stoneware glazes.
Gallery
Condensed CV
Education
BFA in Illustration/Media Art, 1984
School of Visual Arts
New York, New York
Tile Making in Moravian Mosaics, Mold and Tiles, 2011
Moravian Pottery Tileworks
Doylestown, PA
Baltimore Clayworks School, 2012-2013
Selected Exhibitions
2018 January-February: New York Dyers Art Center, NTID Gallery
2016-2017 San Francisco Public Library “Ellen Mansfield’s De’VIA : Deaf View Image Art” solo art show ,dozen printed artworks size 20 x 16 in.
2015-2016, Shook Gallery @ Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, Indiana. “My Deafhood Art:
2017 DownRiver Council for the Arts, Wyandotte MI .
3 paintings and ceramics mandala
2017 “World Reimagined: A Deaf Perspective”, Juried Group at the Silpe Gallery at the University of Hartford,Conn. (HandTree Rainbow Mandala ceramics , The Birth of Deaf mother and baby painting, and De’Humankind Tile are exhibited.)
2017 3 paintings at Johnson County Library’s The One in Many Art exhibit, Kansas
2016 “Disability and Intersectionality Art” @ VSA Massachusetts, 89 South Street, Suite #101, Boston
2016: Wabash Art Corridor Group Art exhibition in Chicago
2016 ABE/Deaf Arts Festival, Royal Oaks, Michigan.
2016 Nelson-Atkins Museum, Missouri.”DeVIA29 Facebook Art Challenge”. my two artworks are honorable invited. “A Head of Audiologist and ASL Bird”, Birdcage and “50 Birdhouses”.
2016: Crestwood Art Gallery at 7211 Bank court, Frederick Md. “Grand Palace” painting is with ”Reflections of Seasons” group exhibition
2016: Columbia College Chicago’s DeVIA Reunion Gallery ;5 artworks exhibited at CC#33 Gallery
2016: Olson, Norway of De’VIA show; Teater Manu Building. Curated Megan Matovich-Noddeland.
2016 Latino Deaf Association Symposium @ Ole Jim, Gallaudet
2016 Eastern DCA Black Deaf Association Conference
2016 Delaware School for the Deaf Community Day
2015 Breaking the Walls Talent and Fashion Show in Southfield, MI.
2015 “Dr.Andrew Foster: Let There Be Light” Tile exhibited @ Dyers Art Center, NTID. “Unfolding the Soul of Black Deaf Expressions” and Andrew Foster exhibition
2015 ARTS BEATS EATS Festival , Royal Oaks, MI.