The Cohalan family is working to fill this space with the enormous body of work created by Mame over her lifetime. For the moment, we are concentrating on finding a new permanent home for her Earth Rising piece.
Mame Cohalan (Mary Ellen Kelley Cohalan)
October 22, 1939 – February 12, 2020
Mary Ellen Kelley was born on October 22, 1939 and grew up in Exeter, PA. Her father Eugene Kelley was a Medical Doctor and Naval Officer who was away in the Pacific war for a good part of her early childhood, and she was raised, along with her two sisters and brother, by their mother, Helen Carr Kelley, who eventually became a librarian at Scranton University.
She was awarded a piano music scholarship to Marywood University and graduated in 1960. Later, she attended The Catholic University of America where she worked on a master’s degree in the Theater Department under Father Hartke.
In the Spring of 1963, while at Catholic University, she met Michael Cohalan, an architectural student. They were married on May 9th, 1964 after he completed his boot camp training at Parris Island, SC.
During the early 1960s Mame worked on Capitol Hill as a secretary for Senator Jacob Javits and later for Congressman Clark MacGregor. She also worked for nationally recognized architect Hugh Jacobson during the mid-60s.
Their Daughter Deirdre was born in December of 1965. Their son Shannon was born in October of 1969.
Always the achiever, Mame also had a brief career as an actress at the O Street Theater and at the Arena Stage in DC.
She started painting with acrylic on canvas in 1969, beginning with a hard-edged mathematical theme on prime numbers.
In the early 70's she began working with an abstract splatter painting technique, perfecting her ability to create consistent dots and waves of color.
Her mural career was launched with a building wall mural on the then recently constructed Southwest Community House building. She then went on to create many large-scale murals in downtown DC, including those on Pennsylvania Avenue where she worked closely with the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation and the Fine Arts Commission.
After forming “Public Art Works”, a non-profit corporation, she hired teenagers to assist her with these projects through Mayor Barry’s summer Youth Employment Program as well as the National PIC Program.
Her Mural career included projects at the National Zoo, DC General Hospital, a building wall on Sunderland Place NW, a multi-story office building interior courtyard on K Street NW, the Concord Lounge at Kennedy Airport in New York and many other exterior and interior commercial murals around Washington DC.
A unique mural that still exists on the rear wall of the Old National Bank of Washington building on Indiana avenue near D Street NW, is an amazing trump l’oeil designed to fool the eye by extending the architecture of the building around to the rear wall that borders the pedestrian walkway.
Later, Mame started exploring a sculptural technique using 3 ½ -inch aluminum angles, where the image would shift as you walked by the pieces.
The earlier piece was housed on the grounds of the future Canadian Embassy and was disassembled years later when construction began. The mural found a new life in Milwaukee thanks to the efforts of Congressman Henry Royce. Again, she employed local kids through a youth program arranged by the Congressman.
Her 60’ X 8’ sculptural masterpiece, using this angle technique, lived for many years inside the lobby of the modern skylit Intelsat building on Connecticut Avenue and was known as “Earth Rising”.
Mame and her husband Michael moved to Lewes, Delaware in 1994, precipitated by the death of their dear friend, architect Jack Cahill.
During the move to Lewes she was working on the five prefabricated Caldor Murals, which currently still exist at Acorn Park in Silver Spring, MD. Assisted by her son Shannon (working on the framing panels in a DC studio) she completed the five-mural images in a rented studio on Savannah Road in Lewes.
Mame had been drawn to and was using a German mineral coating product for these murals. She wanted a natural coating product that would be safe for the animals (and people) and harmless to the environment. This passion for the natural mineral coating product led her to ultimately negotiate a relationship with KEIMFarben in Augsburg, Germany.
She was for a long period of time, the sole distributor for their beautiful colorful mineral coatings for the entire United States. These products were used extensively to coat buildings as well as murals in major cities across the country.
During the last 25 years of her life, she traveled extensively throughout the United States, often with the KEIM technical master at the time, Johann Rudroff.
And during this time, she also serviced a large concentration of projects in New York City with her son and business partner, Shannon Cohalan of the “Cohalan Company.”
She continued to grow her Agency, “Cohalan Company”, from Lewes Delaware, where for a long period she had a warehouse / mixing / distribution center on King’s Highway in Lewes, DE.
Cohalan Company’s Federal coating projects included the U.S. Capitol, the White House and the post 911 repair of the Pentagon Building. She also provided coating materials for the historic Arlington House in Virginia.
Later her success opening-up the USA market was recognized by KEIMFarben in Germany who then invested in a major subsidiary in Charlotte, North Carolina which still services construction projects around the USA.
In 2005 Mame and her architect husband Michael moved into the dreamhouse they designed and built on the shore of the Delaware Bay at Back Bay Cove in Milton, DE.
In 2008 and 2009 she was thrilled by the birth of her two grandchildren Nora and Ronan Raymond, to her daughter Deirdre and son-in-law Jeffrey Raymond.
She also leaves behind her husband Michael, her children Deirdre and Shannon, and Jeffrey Raymond, and Kelly Caine, as well as her many friends and family.
She died in her home with her loving family surrounding her on February 12th just as the sun was rising.