Mixed media artist to display work
at Wintergreen Arts Center
PRESQUE ISLE – An opening reception for mixed-media artist Pam Crawford will be held Friday, July 2 from 7-9 p.m. at the Wintergreen Arts Center.
The public is invited to celebrate her opening party and other First Friday Art Walk events held that evening. Her work will be on display in the Barresi Financial Gallery at the Wintergreen Arts Center at 149 State St. in Presque Isle from July 2-30. Twenty percent of all sales of work from this exhibit will be donated to the Wintergreen Arts Center.
Crawford is a long-time Presque Isle resident and is gainfully employed as a community college instructor. She describes herself as a “mixed media artist, yard sale aficionado, and full time pack rat.” Working from a small studio in her home, her art “involves recycling, repurposing, transforming, and renewing found objects and ‘junque’ – the leftover, forgotten, discarded, out-dated bits and pieces, gee-gaws, baubles, do-dads, remnants, and scraps that find their way to my workbench.”
Decades before the current trend to “go green” in art, Crawford was recycling cordage into macramé plant hangers, using scrap fabric to fashion coiled baskets, and painting river rocks. She would still much rather “find” her art supplies than buy them at the big box craft stores, though yard sales and thrift shops do yield great recyclables when she needs additional materials.
Today she is inspired by experience, experimentation, adventure, ideas, color, shape, seasons, and the elements – but more often by a dusty wooden box, a rusty bauble, or a gaudy piece of fabric calling for her attention. Creating a fun and/or functional piece of art from something that had a very different original intended purpose gives her endless options for recycling and reusing materials: old earrings become books, discarded glassware morphs into a yard totem, old jeans are converted into a tote bag, a leather dress gets a new life as a book cover.
She also “dabbles” – inks, paints, dyes, chalks, oil pastels, fabrics, Shivastiks, crayons, pencils, threads, fibers, metal, wood, clay, paper ephemera of all kinds – all are fair game as materials to be manipulated, stretched, heated, torn, sewn, woven, strewn, glued, pasted and patched … and she is never sure what the end result will be. It’s the playful process that she thoroughly enjoys.
“When functional art results, it’s a perfect day!” said Crawford.
Wintergreen Arts Center is hosting her opening reception as part of the First Friday Art Walk, which is a new cultural opportunity in downtown Presque Isle. Downtown businesses and organizations invite visitors to take a self-guided stroll through the downtown and University galleries to hear live music, meet local authors and artists, and experience the heart of our community. Participating organizations include the Turner Memorial Library Gallery, Wintergreen Arts Center, Merchants on the Corner, Café Sorpreso, Morning Star Arts and Framing, the Downtown Revitalization Committee, Freddy P’s, the Presque Isle Area Chamber of Commerce and the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
First Friday Art Walk is designed to become an event where people can meet, unwind, and enjoy the arts on the first Friday of each month between 5-9 p.m. For more information, visit the First Friday Art Walk Facebook page or e-mail Renee Felini at renee.felini@umpi.edu.
PAM CRAWFORD, a mixed media artist and long-time Presque Isle resident, will display her work at the Barresi Financial Gallery at the Wintergreen Arts Center at 149 State St. in Presque Isle from July 2-30. Crawford said her art “involves recycling, repurposing, transforming, and renewing found objects and ‘junque’ – the leftover, forgotten, discarded, out-dated bits and pieces, gee-gaws, baubles, do-dads, remnants, and scraps that find their way to my workbench.” Pictured is a fabric she created with various items. Twenty percent of all sales of work from this exhibit will be donated to the Wintergreen Arts Center.
