ELLEN MANSFIELD

This painting is the Analogy in the present life. It is a metamorphosis of me and my daughters into the Dandelions. It has the meaning of Happiness, faithfulness and desire to have a full happiness in life. I am mother in the white fuzz flower seeds head that I have Deaf DNA and gave birth to 2 deaf daughters. I signed ASL words that they said “Deaf Gain”. It has been intertwined with dandelion stem. The stem goes down the ground for the root their deaf identity to baby with DNA motif.

This second analogy about the baby represent of myself in the ground and goes up with my growing up being deaf child to young adult.

Ellen’s past life in the background on paper. They showed the audism experiences in the 8 portraits in her circle.
1. The early drawing was just neutral work for school admission in 80’s, no revealed.
2. Early works to revealed about autism experiences of 2 etching works in art college days- and painting of “Barrier Communication” with my symbology of fence that I carried them to current works of included “Enough is Enough with ear molds” 2012, and ”Endless Summer” 2012
3. The works showed hearing aids with molds and banned ASL in education school
4. The works showed hearing aids with molds and banned ASL in education school
5. I developed symbolic images on the recent works. They are Fishes, question marks on ear, cross stitches as fences, chopped hands, ears, mouths, and eyes.

Ellen Mansfield is a proud De’Artivist who has combined her twin passions of being a De’VIA (Deaf View/Image Art) artist and Deaf rights advocate. Ellen has led a life richly filled with art and experiences. Her background in drawing, painting, batik, ceramics, and other media has brought her to her current place in her journey. Highlighting in Ellen’s career is Solo exhibition,” My Deafhood Art: Traveling Through the Darkness to the Light” of her 50 artworks at the Greater Lafayette of Art Museum in Indiana for four months in late ‘15 and early ‘16. Ellen was born Deaf in Manhattan, New York but grew up in New Jersey for 7 years. She attended public school where she learned poorly without sign language and interpreters. She spent her summers in Golden’s Bridge countryside, north of New York City. Later, she earned a BFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. When she moved to Maryland, Ellen began to recognize just how much her Deaf identity had been emerging from her artwork. Surrounded by Deaf culture and ASL, her life started to blossom, and increasingly colorful images grew from her watercolors, oil paintings, and tile paintings. Her Tile Painting works resulted from a self-taught endeavor after taking a community center tile-making course years ago. Since 2011, hands and eyes have been a dominant motif in her tile designs. She has developed a strong voice—as a Deaf Activist who uses art to take a stand against injustices experienced by Deaf people. At the same time, she celebrates the language and culture of Deaf people---affirming our unique ways of being in the world. Thus, themes of darkness/light and oppression/liberation are often shown in her art. Ellen keeps a home studio called Ellen’s Tile Stroke Studio in Frederick. The studio has a kiln and she had commissions for hand-painted tiles for mural decorations, kitchen backsplashes, fireplace mantel surroundings, and murals behind ranges for past 25 years. She led many workshops in ceramics, drawings, and paintings for over 500 Deaf children, hearing children of Deaf parents, and Deaf adults. Ellen recently curated the first-known public gallery exhibition of Deaf artists’ works in Washington DC. The Let There Be Light: De^ARTivism exhibit ran from August 12th-September 4th, 2015. This juried exhibition drew over 135 submissions with works from a variety of mediums: painting, drawing, sculpture, digital computer art, assembly art, and fabric art. The participating Deaf artists include professional artists, amateur/emerging artists, prisoners, and children.