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Self-taught painter Eileen Dolman began her career in art at Douglas School in Murphysboro, where she painted the image of abolitionist leader and author Frederick Douglas onto a brick. Since then, Dolman has painted the images of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, jazz pianist Count Basie, agricultural chemist and inventor George Washington Carver, and Chicago teen Emmitt Till, whose 1955 murder in Mississippi is considered one of the leading events behind the rise of the Civil Rights movement. Although she usually finishes about five bricks per week, Dolman finished 35 bricks in one month's time for a show at the Carbondale Civic Center. She says that she chooses the brick first and then attempts to capture the individual's character and essence on the brick. She also paints on canvas and explores other cultures in her work.

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