Round and Around: The Art of Mindy Tousley at the Lissauer

Lissauer-Tousley-Studio Still Life 6

The Lissauer Gallery at the Shaker Historical Museum is very pleased to feature the art of Melinda Tousley—or Mindy to most. Although she was born and educated in western New York, she has long since been making Cleveland her home and focusing her attention on creating, developing and supporting art here. The Lissauer Gallery is dedicated to displaying the work of local artists, and Mindy most certainly qualifies.

Her latest work develops a lifelong fascination with collage. The monoprint collage works began in 2009 when she consciously made a decision to find a work process that was original in order to make something unique to her. Mindy had been using electrostatic prints and transfers in work which was figuratively based for at least ten years, but she was frequently being compared to others in the area using similar processes, which was unsatisfying. After investigations of different forms of monoprinting, she began experimenting with printing on colored Canson paper using acrylic paints. Mindy tells us, “I liked this method. It felt like the way I used to work with clay when I was a ceramic artist in years past. This grew into the practice I use today for constructing the large collage pieces included in this show.”

Experimenting with the shapes of scrap paper used in the monoprint collage works led to her topographical landscapes. The glue forms a resist on the paper after it dries and the random shapes were making interesting configurations. Mindy reflects that “the results looked to me like the landscape of North America as seen from the unique 20th century aspect of air travel. This was an experience that most of us share and I had been thinking about capturing it in some way in my art for a time.” The work subsequently morphed into focusing more on the wires and connectors than the landscape.

Mindy is the executive director for the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, and her work is on exhibit at the Lissauer Gallery until January 5. The Lissauer Gallery is located next to the Shaker-Lee stop on RTA’s Green Line.

MINDY TOUSLEY: ROUND AND AROUND | NOVEMBER 3–JANUARY 5

Lissauer Gallery

Shaker Historical Society

16740 South Park Boulevard

Shaker Heights, Ohio 44120

shakerhistoricalsociety.org