After a nudge from gallery owner Pam Tarbell, Bow artist Andy Moerlein achieved what few artists ever had at the Mill Brook Gallery & Sculpture Garden: he built art in the turtle pond.
The tiny body of water had never seen anything to this scale, Tarbell said as she admired the sculpture on the outdoor gallery’s outskirts. It’s like a web of silver saplings, strewn together and connected by textured stones, except that now, “Cursive” has been there so long that the branches, dug deep in the mud below, have begun to sprout leaves, and a family of geese has made a home nearby.
Moerlein had always admired sculptures that used water in this way — he said it seemed like an “exciting way to approach” the art — but he’d never before had the opportunity to do so.
“Pam challenged me to do it. It was her idea. But that’s what a good curator does. … She’s allowed me to create new work every year for the last 17 years. I’ve debuted work here that’s only been in my mind,” Moerlein said in a phone interview. (For example, last year he installed a sculpture up in a tree.)
Installing a sculpture like this is no easy feat; it took two canoes tied together, two pieces of plywood tied atop, a painting ladder and a good chunk of a Saturday afternoon.
“Water has a richness about it. The reflections are everywhere you look, and they’re important — it’s only half a piece before it’s reflected,” Moerlein said.
His is one of many sculptures within the Mill Brook Gallery’s 17th Annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, on view now through Oct. 26 and open for viewing Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The gallery sits attached to Tarbell’s home, and every year, this outdoor garden of art requires quite a bit of work on Tarbell’s part, from networking and nudging artists (either to create something new or to make the submission deadline) to gardening and pruning the gallery’s landscape.
She’s always emphasized that her aim is to create a space that is not only full of beautiful art, but also whimsical, playful, and pleasant for visiting children as well.
This year’s crop includes a bronze sculpture called “Rower” by David Borrus that depicts a long-limbed figure in a slim row boat, up at the catch and ready to take a stroke. John Weidman created “Painless View” for this year’s show, a window-shaped sculpture that looks over the back part of the garden, and Paul Angiolillo’s “The Mighty Pen” is made from wood and metal and literally looks like a gigantic pen and bottle of ink.
There’s also a metal figure called “Toe Dancer” situated at the garden’s center by artist John BonSignore. If you know New Hampshire sculpture, you may recognize the piece; it’s part of a series, and two of the others currently stand as part of the outdoor sculpture exhibition at The Fells and in downtown Meredith, part its year-long sculpture walk.
However, it’s quite different from what he’s shown in New Hampshire in past years; his prior work was mostly made of stone.
“It’s completely different,” BonSignore said in a phone interview. “The stone has its own characteristics — it’s more organic, but I’m trying to accomplish the same thing, but through a different medium. Rather than the stone being the organic part, I’m trying to convey the same thing but through the form, the flow of the metal.”
BonSignore said it’s not a bad time to be a sculptor.
“This year, especially for me, I think the state of New Hampshire has made quite an effort to incorporate more sculpture,” BonSignore said. “I think the public is enjoying it.”
Tarbell, too, has curated her own exhibition at Mill Brook, but also at The Fells (which is why you’ll find some of the same artists there), and she did a bit of behind-the-scenes work for the Meredith Sculpture Walk, which is set to be completed by mid-July.
As seen in the July 3, 2014 issue of the Hippo.
