The show features artwork made from recycled materials by Kitty Winslow and Paul Heffernan. The opening reception is Friday, August 19, from 4 to 7 p.m.
CUSHING – The Arts In The Barn series continues with an exhibition by two accomplished artists of works using reused and recycled materials. “Carton, etc.” Features paintings and constructions by Paul Heffernan and Kitty Winslow, opening with a reception Friday, August 19, from 4 to 7 p.m. The show will be for the weekend only, Saturday and Sunday, August 20 and 21, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 17 Hathorne Point Road. Heffernan and Winslow are Midcoast Maine residents who connected as friends and abstract artists a few years back. They both work from studios in their barns.
Heffernan uses cardboard, hand-printed paper, ties and shrink-wrapped books in his collages and paintings. His interest in using recycled and unusual materials peaked seven years ago when another artist moved out of the studio he was renting, leaving him with a large piece of handmade paper. With his move to Maine five years ago, Heffernan expanded his use of recycled “stuff” to include materials such as damaged books, denim and ties. He uses a lot of color and many of his abstract collages and geometric constructions consist of paper that he has painted or silk-screened himself. His influences include religious iconography and Arte Povera (“Bad Art”), an Italian art movement of the 1970s where artists used inexpensive materials. During the pandemic, he explored color extensively with a series of geometric constructions that loosely referenced crosses. Heffernan’s work has been juried in various shows and he has participated in online and in-person art residencies.
Winslow’s work is about searching, investigating and reinventing. Her process is intuitive and involves working and reworking surfaces, infusing the work with a sense of history. She works mainly in acrylic on paper and cardboard in large and small formats. Recently she has been working with cardboard boxes, both 3D and flat. Early in the pandemic, she painted shapes that seemed to tilt and sway in a series she called “The Stacks.” She has explored various themes of identity, domesticity, family history and environmental inquiries. Winslow received a BS in Fine Arts from Skidmore College and an MFA from Hartford Art School. She has taught on and off and has shown her work throughout New England and in New York City at the Nicolos Davies Gallery, winning many awards.
By choice or necessity, artists have incorporated recycled cardboard in their work for many decades, but the popularity of cardboard as a medium or canvas has increased in recent years along with the volume of packages received from online ordering, especially while the pandemic. With such an abundance of things, along with environmental concerns, Heffernan and Winslow are joining other artists to use more recycled and nontraditional materials in their work.
