Cle Series: Escape with Ghost

Cle Series: Escape with Ghost
Thomas Roese

Artist Biography
Acquisition Number: 2020.4
Medium: Graphite, acrylic, and colored pencil on acid-free board
Size: 32 x 40 in.
Date: 2016
Credit: Gift of the artist

Roese creates industrial pieces of Cleveland which are heavily inspired by his upbringing in Old Brooklyn, a neighborhood of Cleveland overlooking the industrial flats. Roese’s father was a factory worker and he was exposed to the lifestyle of the working class. His was a childhood filled with blue collar workers, steel mills, chemical plants, smoke, and noise, with endless time spent drawing houses in his neighborhood, and creating a link between the grittiness of his graphite pencil with the grit of the industrial scene. This particular piece has the “ghost” of a name on its building, a leftover reminder of the once bustling industrial side of Cleveland.