Source photo by Debra Kaszubski

“Spiraling Down,” in which a dark looping spiral whirls into a black abyss, represents what Rollyson called “a bad day.” “Fading Funk” is also black with spots of bright yellow, symbolizing the start of something good. Another painting in the same series, Rollyson said, “feels like a headache. It’s as if your head is going to explode looking at it.”

The emotional paintings are part of a series of 20 which, when lined up, tell a story.

“It was like reading a book,” Rollyson said. The series was also among the first abstracts painted by Rollyson two years ago.

Rollyson, who lives in Gaines, is the Sterling Heights Artist of the Month of April. Her displayed paintings are on sale for $500 each by calling 989-271-9576.

While paintings such a “Leo,” a textured medium abstract which clearly features the face of the lion, may not reflect changing moods, most of Rollyson’s art and the art displayed in Sterling Heights features Rollyson’s signature shape - a circle.

Rollyson admits she’s intrigued by the shape and uses it in many different ways through her art. Her favorite displayed painting in Sterling Heights is called “Becoming the Circle,” in which it appears as if circles are taking root in soil. An early abstract features layered circles shaped into a tunnel.

“I realized that circles were my signature,” she said. “It’s amazing how many ways you can paint a circle, to look like bubbles, discs in flying through space, spheres, spirals ...”

Rollyson has not always painted circular objects and abstract art. Rollyson, who says she believes a person does not become an artist but is rather born one, received an associate’s degree of occupational studies in visual communications from the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver. She worked as a freelance graphic designer for ad and marketing agencies, and full-time at WJRT-TV 12 in Flint where she designed on-air graphics, commercials and other artwork.

Rollyson decided to focus on fine art and work from her home to avoid putting her children - Zach, 18, and Katie, 16 - in daycare. She also began painting almost exclusively with acrylics. She started teaching art classes, and continued to paint and show her contemporary works. Rollyson also paints murals, floor cloths and glassware in addition to canvas.

Her switch to abstract a couple of years ago gave her more creative freedom, she said. Many times, she will start an abstract painting without having an idea of what to paint. She’ll layer modeling paste with acrylics and metallics on canvas, bringing the painting to life. An image appears and Rollyson further develops.

Her work has been showcased throughout Michigan and the United States. Rollyson said she is proud to have had five pieces shown at the Agora Gallery in New York City. Besides Sterling Heights, her work is also currently displayed in Flint, Owosso and Austin, Texas.

Although her children are now teens, Rollyson continues to work from her home studio, located in her dining room. She hopes to one day turn her pole barn into a large studio.

Rollyson’s work is on display in the lower level of Sterling Heights City Hall, 40555 Utica Road, at Dodge Park Road. For more information, call 446-2489. 

Poet - Visual Artist

About the artist:

Impressionism, Symbolism and Art Nouveau have heavily influenced my work. I admire the work of artists such as Monet, Manet, Klimt, Renoir, Degas and Chagall. I tend to paint a lot of circles. The circle is representative of life itself. Life is God, a perfect circle with no beginning, no ending. I have begun to include my thoughts in written form, into my paintings. I feel as though this allows me to connect more immediately and intimately to the viewer. I was born in Flint, Michigan and currently reside in Gaines. I attended the Colorado Institute of Art's Visual Communications Program and graduated with an associate's degree of occupational studies in 1987. I have designed for television, worked as a graphic artist for advertising agencies, marketing firms & graphic design studios and have marketed original designs. Currently I teach and hold painting workshops in my studio as well as throughout the country. I have exhibited in shows from Pittsburgh to Orlando, Denver to New York City and extensively throughout the State of Michigan. Agora Gallery in NYC is currently representing my work.

Press Release Tonya Henderson Rollyson's paintings show a predilection for swirling circular forms in deep, saturated tones. It's as though she's rendered some celestial stream's roaring currents in splashing reds and deep blues, flowing through her abstract compositions. Raised in a family of artists in Michigan, her pointillist forms echo her mothers family's long sewing and textile tradition, while many structural elements in her compositions echo her father's painting and woodworking. This multiplicity of skills is reflected in Tonya's own oeuvre, which appears all over the United States in innumerable forms: television graphics, greeting cards, commercials and murals, to name just a few. Her paintings, however, dramatize a vital energy that appears constantly trying to escape the boundaries of the medium. Tonya moves seamlessly between surrealism and abstract expressionism, creating dynamic juxtapositions of colors, planes and shapes that alternately leap off the canvas or roll unstoppably out of the frame. From these grand movements to the details of their component parts, Tonya visualizes the grand minutiae of bounding energy.