acrylic on wood

33.5”L x 22.25”W

Mary Ellen Nichols was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1919. She studied at the Cleveland School of Art, where she was awarded a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1940. Trained in numerous disciplines—including painting, watercolor, fashion illustration, and jewelry design—Mary Ellen McDermott produced work in a wide range of media over the course of her long and productive career. After about 1953, however, enameling became her preferred medium.

While she explored a wide range of subjects in her work, McDermott was most interested in religious themes and was awarded numerous ecclesiastical commissions for churches throughout northeastern Ohio. According to a 1984 résumé, she taught painting, enameling, jewelry, mosaics, and drawing at the Akron Art Institute from 1949 on, and painting, enameling, and design at the Cleveland School of Art from 1961.

By 1959 she was considered one of the most significant enamelists, and three of her works exploring religious themes—Reliquary, Coronation, and Incarnation—were included in the influential exhibition Enamels at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts. In 1961 she started participating in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s May Show and went on to present her work there twelve more times (1961–67, 1969, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1983).