Sloane - "Cathy in Gray" Silkscreen print of brunette woman wearing a dress sitting in a chair by a table with pink roses in a glass.

Phyllis Sloane • Ohio (1921-2009)

Cathy in Gray C: 1979 • Silkscreen on Paper 26" x 19"

Phyllis Lester Sloane led a charmed artistic life whose seeds were sown in a Russian Shtetl in 1884. That was the year her father Nathan Lester was born in Minsk. With wife, Gussie, he immigrated to America in 1905. Russia’s loss was America’s gain as this chain-smoking tool and die maker displayed a fertile creative mind and remarkable talent for invention. Within 15 years of landing at Ellis Island, the Lester family was happily living in Cleveland and Nathan was the prosperous inventor of plastic injection molding machines, the backbone of the exploding plastics manufacturing industry.

Now look through the windows of a large brick home near Cleveland’s Shaker Square in 1959. There a 38-year old artist sat mourning her recently deceased father and staring at a broken-down Potter printing press, a “gift” from good friends Jack and Marjorie Woodside. How would the daughter of Nathan Lester handle the situation? She patiently put the broken parts together, cleaning each fitting by hand and placing just the right amount of oil into every joint. There were no instructions, so she followed the lessons her father taught her by words and deeds: “Trust the process of discovery.”

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What she discovered was a love of printmaking. Already an artist with a growing national reputation and three young children, Phyllis threw herself enthusiastically into every printmaking technique, including wood, linoleum and cork cuts. She brought a sense of playfulness to her inventive prints, with self-portraits doubling as a coaster on a table, an envelope addressed to herself, and even her own reflection in a glass. She spent most of her life summering in Cleveland and wintering in New Mexico. Eventually Santa Fe, an artist’s paradise, became her full-time home and studio. Recognized as an outgoing, hard-working artist, her favorite quote was: “Potential has a shelf life.”

By 1982, Phyllis Lester Sloane had established a national reputation with works in a wide variety of museums around the country. That was also the year she accepted the prestigious Cleveland Arts Prize and reflected on “the man who taught me the joy of a creative life,” the old Russian die-maker, Nathan Lester.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased in Memory of Ralph L. Wilson, 79.27

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“She was a prolific artist whose favorite quote was, ‘Potential has a shelf life.’ Thank goodness her shelf life was long.”

2.
“With a very discerning eye for color, she once made a gallery change the color of their poinsettias from red to white to better compliment her prints.”

3.
“Two major changes took place in her life in 1959. Her beloved father died and she received the gift of a printing press … in parts.”

4.
“She was her father’s daughter. He was a prosperous inventor of machinery for the plastics industry. She was originally an Industrial Designer.”

Sloane Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1921

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father, Nathan, and mother, Gussie, were both Russian immigrants from the city of Minsk. Her father became a well-known inventor of plastic injection molding machines, as did her brother, Bill.

1920s

The family moved frequently as her father established his machine building business. Eventually they settled in Cleveland where young Phyllis attended Onaway Elementary School in Shaker Heights. It was there she first discovered a love of art when she was astonished to win a prize for doing something she enjoyed so much.

1939-42

Attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where she studied Industrial Design and earned a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts).

1942-43

Worked at Sears and Roebuck in Chicago. She also handled freelance product design projects for contacts in New York City.

1945

Having moved back to Cleveland, she established PDA Design Company with friend Bucky Shewitz. This was primarily a product design firm, although they also handled advertising and other commercial art assignments.

1949

Left PDA to start a family and continued to pursue an artistic career as a potter, jeweler and painter. Her family grew to eventually include three children: Ginna, Lisa and Nathan.

1959

Acquired an old printing press as a gift from friends Jack and Marj Woodside. The press was in pieces and she worked diligently to reassemble it and learn how to make it work. This began an intense study of different printmaking techniques that were a major force in her future artistic career. This was also the year her father died.

1960-1978

Sloane became fascinated with still lives and cityscapes. She was especially enchanted with the female figure. Her art moved from abstract to representational during this time. Her good friend, renowned Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein, made a similar journey.

Late 1970s

After a number of years splitting time between Cleveland and New Mexico, she moved permanently to the artist’s paradise of Santa Fe.

1996

H. Daniel Butts III published The Art of Phyllis Sloane. This was the first major book about her life and work.

2000-06

Began fully concentrating on printmaking which was already a major part of her work. During her lifetime, she produced over 300 major prints.

2004

The Las Vegas Museum of Art staged an ambitious retrospective of her work. By this time her work was already in the collections of such major museums as the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Philadelphia Art Museum and the New Mexico Museum of Fine Art. This was also the year Robert Bell published Printmaking Techniques of Phyllis Sloane.

2009

Died, at age 87, at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her death was attributed to a form of bone cancer and heart disease. She was an active artist until the end. During her lifetime she produced literally thousands of works of art as a printmaker, painter and watercolor artist.

2014

Laura Dowler published Bold & Brilliant – Phyllis Sloane’s Pop Portraits.