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This essay was written for The HeArt of Cleveland, Volume II, an anthology of art and writing organized and published by Scott Kraynak, and surveying the creative scene in Cleveland. It’s published with permission. The HeArt of Cleveland, Volume II debuts in November at HEDGE Gallery, with an exhibition of works by artists who contributed to images and text to its pages. The Heart of Cleveland, Volume II is available from HEDGE Gallery.

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Eileen Dorsey’s painting for The HeArt of Cleveland, Vol. II is one whose backstory illuminates the interconnectedness of the region’s art scene: the fact that it is an ecosystem in which different parts of the scene play different roles.

The word ecosystem, used in the context of Dorsey’s paintings, calls to mind the works for which she is known—views deep into technicolor forests; the canopy and the undergrowth, all lush with different shades. They have impressionistic and expressionistic qualities: she’s painting the dapple of light on and beneath the trees, but also making them speak. And she uses a lot of paint, building up significant impasto. If calm could have a loud voice, these would have it. They are peaceful, but they have that bold, almost shouting color. It’s her palate that makes all that work. In a 2017 “Makers” profile for CAN Blog, Brittany Hudak found similarity to the expressive way Andre Derain and Henri Matisse used color.

Dorsey is that rare Cleveland artist who actually makes a living at it—not by teaching, or in a day job that enables a prolific, off-hours output (as most Cleveland artists do), but by selling paintings, taking commissions, getting mural jobs, and also a bit of merchandising of her own distinctive work. She’s had plenty of recognition, from commemoration (like the City of Westlake naming July 31 “Eileen Dorsey Day,”) to repeatedly winning popular vote to be named “best artist” and “best painter” by readers of Scene Magazine and Cleveland Magazine. She’s also been commissioned to create those tree murals at apartment complexes and on the sides of buildings in Old Brooklyn, Lakewood, Cleveland, and Independence, as well as a mural for Twenty-One Pilots’ album Scaled and Icy, and interiors for Barrio Tacos restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, and Traverse City and Grand Rapids, Michigan. And in addition to shows of her own work in her studio at 78th Street Studios, she’s been in a slew of juried and group shows, from the Butler Midyear Exhibition to the Ohio Arts Council’s juried show at the Riffe Center. She studied fine art at Kent State University with Charles Basham. His influence on her palate could be seen in her two-person show with him in 2019, at the Massillon Museum. In Fall 2024, she was part of another exhibit juxtaposing the legendary professor with works of former students.

If that’s all you know of her work, her painting for this book–The Art Girls—is a significant departure: it’s not trees at all, but the faces of three familiar women against a sky blue background, clearly women she admires: The highlights in their hair, the shine in their eyes, their obvious camaraderie all speak of affection. But in fact that doesn’t come out of the blue, so to speak. Prior to 2010, human figures were her primary subject. And if all those trees bring to mind the ecosystem, it’s worth noting that for Dorsey, they’re not just a surface (or a million leaves) for light to land on, not just objects for painting. Dorsey genuinely cares about trees, and what they do for people and the planet, and has become a tree steward in her neighborhood.

But these particular women have another connection. The word “ecosystem” applies to the art sector, as well. The women in Dorsey’s painting are the original “Art Girls.” Liz Maugans, Karen Petkovic, and Nancy Heaton: a trio of friends who are prodigious networkers and supporters of other people’s endeavors. They started the Art Girls in the early 2010s, recognizing that in their own happy hour gatherings they had fertile ground for networking events. It was an organic kind of networking and information sharing, and by 2019, just before the Pandemic, the group had grown to 150 women, with 30 to 60 gathering for the occasionally scheduled events. In a story for CAN Journal at the time, writer Erin O’Brien called the Art Girls “one of the area’s quietest and most significant arts networks.”

When she said that, O’Brien was writing a story called An Armful of Flowers, on the occasion of CAN celebrating women in leadership positions in the arts. It is overwhelmingly true that in Northeast Ohio–from maker studios like Zygote Press, Praxis, Brick, and the Morgan Conservatory; to contemporary exhibitors like SPACES and moCa; to community art centers like Valley Art Center, BAYarts, Waterloo Arts, Art House, and Beck Center; to commercial galleries like HEDGE, Abattoir, Framed, Kink, and Deep Dive; to the Cleveland Institute of Art—visual art organizations are led by women. And as in an ecosystem, these are women who, by playing their parts as gallery and studio directors, as curators, and in other roles create opportunities and platforms for other people in the art community to do their work.

Those gatherings started from the same kind of energy, and with many of the same people, and not long after the birth of CAN Journal. Maugans, at the time, was executive director of Zygote Press, and had organized meetings of art organizations to explore ways they could work together for mutual benefit. Heaton was executive director, and Petkovic artistic director at BAYarts, and they proactively supported the effort not just by being a part of it, but by volunteering repeatedly to host meetings, launch parties, and other events. The result was 28 organizations pitching in time, energy and money to launch the regional art scene’s own media outlet. It was about artists and organizations working together: the ecosystem.

The rest of this book, The HeArt of Cleveland, Vol. II, shares that ethic. When he issued the call for artists, publisher Scott Kraynak asked that those who were a part of the first HeArt of Cleveland (2018) to submit portraits of other artists. Like Dorsey, the artists chose as subjects other artists whose work they admire, whether that be for their art, or some other role they play. In a sense, what you see on the book’s pages is not just the response to a call for art. It’s a reflection of the spirit that makes Cleveland a great place for artists to live and work.

The HeArt of Cleveland II
Preview Reception 5-7 pm Wednesday, November 13
On view Friday, November 15 – Saturday, December 28,
Third Friday: 5 – 8 pm November 15
Third Friday: 5 – 8 pm December 20

HEDGE Gallery
78th Street Studios
1305 West 80 Street
Cleveland