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About the Wall

The Wall of America highlights America at work from the waning of the Industrial Age to the onset of the Electronic age. The giant painting –110 feet long, 40 feet high –is a kaleidoscope of men and women engaged in 38 different kinds of work. Much of the painting is on aluminum panels, but the artist is also using other materials, including fiberglass, ceramic tile, steel, glass, fabric, and salvaged timber.

The artist – Ellen Griesedieck – has exhibited in New York and Paris. The idea for ‘the Wall’ grew out of a series of paintings Ellen did of people working at a wide range of jobs. Commercial fishermen. Steel workers. Teachers. Pilots. Surgeons. Assembly line workers. She decided she would make something that brought all these images-and many others-together.

“I have immense respect,” Ellen says, “for the men and women who work hours on end at the limits of physical and mental endurance. And if some of that comes through in my pictures, good. I’ve see people doing tough, uncompromising work in copper mines and orange groves, driving cabs and running fishing boats, and these people are heroes to me.

“Every painting has to start with something, an idea that opens the door. For me, that’s always people. I like to get close to my subjects, to watch them at work.”

In the Wall of America, Ellen explores the commonality of different working experiences across the country. The painting radiates the optimism, determination and humor that the artist sees in the men and women who are building America.

“I’ve been painting all my life. Painting is art – and it is work, too: You’ve got to put time and energy into it. I get help from my subjects; their energy flows into my paintings. When I paint someone; it’s as if they become part of an extended family… A very personal one that’s all mine, and at the same time a far larger one that I feel includes many Americans.”

“When you look at the painting,” Ellen says, “I want you to see America in a way you never have before. I want you to feel our energy and diversity, the intensity with which we go about doing things.”

The Wall of America began in the mind of the artist, but in its finished form it will be a collaboration involving hundreds of people across America. The painting is already two years in the making, and Ellen estimates it may take another six years to finish.

“It’s called the Wall of America,” Ellen Griesedieck says, “But it is also the Wall by Americans and the Wall for Americans.

“We have fourth graders and high school kids doing ceramic tiles for the foundry section, Navajo Indians painting a 6 foot 'checked shirt' section, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward picking movies for the film scroll, and Scott Mitchen diving into Lake Superior for 300 year old timber that will become the 22 foot ax handle. Writers are contributing quotes. Close to 1,000 of our greatest athletes have signed fabric panels that I will stitch together to make up the part of the wall called “the playing field.” We’ll have something from each of the 50 states.”

Regarding young people -- Ellen says, “I want kids to see how limitless their possibilities can be…..to empower them to have their own ‘creative agenda.’

Finding a home for such a large work of art led Ellen to an abandoned powerhouse, almost 100 years old, in a mill complex in southwestern Massachusetts. The building itself represents the artisan craft of 19th century bricklayers, stonemasons and constructions workers. The artist hopes to be able to restore it because she feels that buildings like this are an endangered part of our heritage. When the time comes to install the Wall in its new home, Ms. Greisedieck will be able to count on hundreds of volunteers. She says, It’s going to be like an old barn raising... except it'll be a wall raising.