Draft:Ellen Griesedieck

Ellen Griesedieck (born January 26, 1948) is an artist and the founder of the nonprofit arts-and-education center the American Mural Project (AMP) in Winsted, Connecticut. Her work includes the three-dimensional mural that is the centerpiece of AMP. The mural is 120 feet long, 48 feet high, and up to 10 feet deep. It includes aluminum, wood, blown glass, stone, textiles, and ceramics, and is displayed in a restored former mill building. Griesedieck conceived the mural as a tribute to working Americans.

Early life and education
Griesedieck was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1948. Her father was the president of the Falstaff Brewing Corporation and a part owner of the St. Louis Cardinals. She developed her first love of sports by going to St. Louis Cardinals games with her brother and four sisters.

After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder, Griesedieck worked for Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles as a photographer and illustrator, and then as a freelancer for IMG, Sports Illustrated, People, Road & Track, World Tennis, Golf Magazine, and others, covering the National Football League, the Wimbledon Championships, the PGA Championship, the Masters Tournament, and the final five Muhammad Ali fights. She also designed logos for Björn Borg, John Newcombe, and other IMG clients.

In 1979, she married Sam Posey, a racing driver and artist, whom she'd met on an assignment. She began painting full-time in 1980. She had several group shows starting in 1977 and individual shows, the first in 1985, in New York, Connecticut, and Paris. She received commissions for her work from Times Mirror Company, General Motors, CBS, Miller Brewing Company, The New York Times, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

In 1982, after her husband introduced her to the actor and racing driver Paul Newman, Griesedieck designed the first label for Newman's Own and organized the printing of ten thousand bottles of salad dressing. She designed most of the company's labels over the next twenty years.

She also met the artist Frank Stella, who invited her to the foundry where he was making sculptures out of melted aluminum. Griesedieck's painting of the workers at the foundry became the first in a series on working Americans—steelworkers on the West Side Highway in New York City, taxi drivers at a Manhattan garage, surgeons at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, ranchers in Montana.

The Workers Mural
Griesedieck conceived of the mural in 1999, after returning from Boeing's 747 fabrication plant in Everett, Washington, in search of a scale capable of conveying the experience of the plant, as well as the inspiration she'd taken from her recent subjects—people she felt had not received the recognition they deserved.

The mural now includes contributions from over 15,000 people,   most of them kids, whom Griesedieck met on trips across the country, on projects in partnership with NASA, Boeing, Habitat for Humanity, HealthCorps, Bill Strickland's Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, and other organizations chosen for their contributions to their communities and beyond. The mural is also at the center of the American Mural Project's educational program, using art as a way into other subjects.

Griesedieck lives with her husband in Sharon, Connecticut. They have two adult children.

Notable works
These are notable works by Ellen Griesedieck.


 * The American Mural Project
 * Group Exhibitions
 * Society of Illustrators Annual Juried Exhibition (1977, 1978, 1979)
 * Royal Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana (1978)
 * Spectrum Gallery, New York (1979)
 * L'Art & L'Automobile, New York (1979)
 * Northwestern Connecticut Community College (1979)
 * Seagram's Company Special Exhibition (1980)
 * Haber-Plaut Gallery, Sharon, Connecticut (1980, 81)
 * Individual Exhibitions
 * Gallery Henoch, New York (1985, 1989, 1995, 2008)
 * Gallerie de Poche, Paris (1990)
 * Tremaine Gallery, Lakeville, Connecticut (2009)
 * Commissions
 * Times Mirror Company
 * General Motors
 * CBS
 * Miller Brewing Company
 * The New York Times
 * NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital