If you attended kindergarten after 1989, there is a strong chance that you learned your colors from three mischievous white mice who stumbled upon tiny pots of paint. Fairport resident Ellen Stoll Walsh is the beloved creator of the bestselling modern classic Mouse Paint along with more than a dozen other picture books that have been read by children around the world.
In the village of Fairport, statues of three mice stand in Kennelley Park, forever memorialized in history. Created by local sculptor Dexter Benedict, Walsh’s most famous main characters sit in a garden just outside the children’s section of the library.
“I had been trying for weeks to figure out how to write a story about mixing primary colors together to make secondary colors when the idea of three white mice jumping in and out of jars of paint and dancing in the puddles came to me in a dream,” says Walsh.
Mouse Paint has been published in fourteen languages, has sold well over a million copies, and can be found in preschool classrooms everywhere. Teaching and storytelling go hand-in-hand in Walsh’s books, including her award-winning Dot and Jabber series, which combines science with a great mystery.
In addition to skills like colors and counting, Walsh’s books show readers how to overcome fears and be yourself. Her unique medium of cut paper collage illustration sets her books apart.
While she illustrated her first two books, Brunus and the New Bear and Theodore All Grown Up in pen and ink, she loved collage so much that once she mastered it, she never went back. “It’s so clean, and I can manipulate everything—move things around until I’m sure where I want them to be; that’s really major.”
Her studio is a modest room on the second level of her 1894 Fairport home. The work space holds a treasure trove of drawers and files filled with cut paper in the shape of legs, arms, tails, and wings in every color. Along with the birds, snakes, frogs, and hamsters, she has masses of cut landscape pieces and says it’s comforting to sit and cut out rocks, dirt, and grass.
“Even though most of my stories are short, it can take me months to write one. I begin by writing in a notebook or on the backs of envelopes and refining on my laptop. This is a back and forth process, and I often find bits of writing all over my house.”
Walsh can tell you exactly how long she’s been creating books for children because she began on her son’s third birthday in 1975. “I was reading Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni to Ben when I realized that I, too, had to write and illustrate children’s books. It was a powerful revelation.” Walsh remembers many long walks with her son, talking about nature and feelings and everything else. And of course, reading lots of books.
One of ten children, Walsh grew up in Baltimore, and many of her siblings went on to pursue careers in the arts, including her sister Mink Stole, a cult film icon. Walsh has warm memories of her mother making up songs and drawing but says, “We never thought of her as an artist. She was just Mom.” The siblings still meet up in Baltimore annually. “We love each other very much.”
After her father died when Walsh was thirteen, a school counselor found her a scholarship to take classes on Saturdays, which led to more scholarships for college. She graduated from the Maryland Institute of Art in 1964 with a BFA in painting.
In 1969, she spent the summer with her art historian husband at an archeological dig at the Diocletian’s Palace in Croatia. That led to a trip to England in 1971 to work on an Anglo-Saxon church in Somerset with celebrated archeologist Philip Rahtz. “Once we started, we kept going,” Walsh recalls. “For thirteen summers, we worked on a twelfth-century Cisterian Abbey in Worcestershire.”
That ended when Walsh’s husband abruptly left her and their young son right around the same time she sent the idea for Mouse Paint to her editor. “It devastated us. But I realized that if I could do this it would give me and my son hope, which we both needed very much.” She barely remembers working on the book, saying, “I managed a couple of hours a day, but spent most of my time hiding under blankets and worrying about my son.”
The success of Mouse Paint took her to China, touring Shanghai and Shekou on a book tour, and has kept her going all these years, allowing her the freedom to continue to share ideas with children. “I wanted to have a career doing something that mattered.”
Over the years, Walsh continued her travels, exploring the world with her unending curiosity. Some of her favorite trips were to India, Bhutan, and Russia. She recently visited Japan with her son, Ben, and his family.
Walsh stumbled upon the Neptune Inn while in Ogunquit, Maine, and a one-night stay led to a longtime friendship with the owners and return visits for the next thirty years. “They put a desk in my room and were incredibly kind to me.” She would take long walks on the beach, collecting shells, rocks, and ideas.
At eighty-three years old, Walsh stays young at heart by maintaining her childlike curiosity and spending time in Vancouver with her eleven-year-old grandson, Theo, whom Walsh describes as incredibly bright and loving. They enjoy exploring the coast of British Columbia, and he is the reason she walks the streets of Fairport every day. “When Theo was born, I decided I was going to stay young for him. I’m not going to give this up.”
Walsh was one of the original members of Rochester Area Children’s Writers & Illustrators when it formed back in 1989 and remains active in the group today supporting local writers and artists. She was also part of a close-knit group of local authors including Bruce Coville, Cynthia DeFelice, Tedd Arnold, Mary Jane Auch, Robin Pulver, and Vivian Vande Velde, who would meet to share and critique each other’s manuscripts.
“Ellen is a genius,” says Vande Velde. “She can distill a story into just a few words and absolutely brilliant pictures. She is very fastidious about the papers she uses and will readily tell you that she has whole batches of mouse eyes, mouse tails, mouse ears—not to mention body parts of other animals—that she has cut out to be able to nuance her characters’ reactions.”
As for her next project, Walsh started drawing elephants years ago and is patiently waiting for the story to come. “One of the most difficult things about elephants is that they don’t stand up and don’t have hands with fingers. That is why, after all these years, I think that maybe they will have to be more like philosophers, helping others to solve their problems.” While she waits for that elephant dream to come, she encourages us all to create our own stories.
“If you think you have an idea that is worth sharing, don’t give up. I was very lucky to have people who believed in me. Listen to the people who believe in you. But never forget that you are the author, and the story you write is your own.”
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2026 issue of (585).
Views: 33
