Exhibit displays creativity on farms

Art is always manna for the senses and sometimes you really want to get your hands on it. “From Farm to Art,” which runs from Dec. 1 to Jan. 2 at the Ethel H. Blum Gallery, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, promises to make you reach out to touch it, judging by photographs I have seen of items in the exhibit.

The exhibit is about the creativity of the farm, said Donna Gold, public relations director at COA. “It includes a wide array of responses to the Maine farm. It is about the tactile beauty of dyed wool, the majesty of fertility and the weathered board of the barn.”

An opening reception 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, will feature the Wednesday Spinners, a group of women from across Maine who have been meeting for 20 years to spin and knit. They will demonstrate how to dye wool with homegrown indigo.

“From Farm to Art” includes various treatments of wool, such as co-curator Susanne Grosjean’s handspun wool rugs dyed with madder root and indigo, Susan Merrill’s totemic mask and headpieces of handspun wool, Geri Valentine’s knit yarn ensembles and Noreen Blailock’s felted books. These items of wool art give warmth, brighten a bare floor and delight the eye with shape and color. They may also inspire the question that often drifts into the minds of those with a creative bent: How in the world did she do that? Will she show me how?

Another section of the exhibit includes work by sculpture artists Wally Warren and James Fangborn who use recycled barn board and used farm equipment in their art. Paper artist Richard Lee has crafted a paper window installation leading to bales of hay titled “Ladder to the Hayloft,” and Melita Westerlund and co-curator Susan Lerner will display a scarecrow fertility goddess fashioned with vegetable matter and chicken wire. The goddess has a poppy seed face, mushroom eyes and a flax figure.

The exhibit also includes baskets made of vines by Joli Greene, preserved food by Allison Martin of the Burning Tree restaurant and photographs of farms by Dina Petrillo.

The Ethel H. Blum Gallery is open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, and by appointment. College of the Atlantic will be closed Dec. 24-Jan.2. For more information about the “From Farm to Art” exhibit, call the gallery at 288-5015.

Snippets

. For those holiday shoppers seeking a special gift for that best beloved, a group of local artists and craftspeople offer “In the Spirit of the Season: Unique Handcrafts from Local Artists,” to be held 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, at the Performance Project Space above the post office in Belfast.

. The Christmas-at-Sea project, sponsored by the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York and New Jersey, provides knitted scarves, caps, socks and vests for mariners who work throughout the holiday season on the decks of container ships. Visit www.seamenschurch.org to find out how you can help its effort to provide warm, knitted clothing to seamen and women who ship out from ports in tropical climates and find themselves in ports with much colder climates – and without the proper clothing to keep them warm. The Web site provides five patterns for specific garments.

Ardeana Hamlin welcomes suggestions. Call 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.