Land Escapes 2001

2001 Press Releases

July 8, 2001


2001 Participant

Nancy Bowen, New York City. An internationally exhibited sculptor, Ms. Bowen will create a temporary outdoor sculpture, made of large colorful tiles painted with different kinds of knots. Her piece will physically link the formal geometry of the Beatrix Farrand Gardens with the casual nature of the Atlantic seashore. The piece contrasts the formal with the informal, the "made" with the natural, all the while drawing the viewer slowly towards a beautiful view of the coast. The knots refer to nautical functions as they evoke broader metaphors. The colors of the tiles were suggested by the colors of local boats and buoys. The entire format was inspired by shrines in India which combine cultural artifacts with elements from nature
Ms. Bowen ia an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at SUNY-Purchase, and on the faculty of the MFA Program at Bard College.
 

August 16, 2001

Symposium marks new way

The first Mount Desert Symposium of the Arts is over, but according to its organizers, participants and the public who took advantage of the week of events and activities offered, it will be back next year.

Artist Nancy Bowen, who was invited to come up from New York to create an installation on College of the Atlantic’s grounds, says she considered the symposium a stunning success.

"I am so glad Nancy (organizer Nancy Manter) invited me to participate. I met some interesting new people living up here, and got a lot of good ideas, some of which I’m sure I’ll follow through on. This could be a truly pivotal sort of thing. An opportunity to share ideas and insights on all aspects of the arts."

For Ms. Bowen, that sharing of ideas was not simply a matter of philosophical debate but sweaty, backbreaking labor. Using the symposium’s inaugural theme, "Land Escapes 2001," as a starting point, she decided to create a pathway with tile and stone.

"I wanted to combine man-made cultural artifacts with the natural elements from the site," she explained. The most prevalent natural element on hand were the beach stones along the shore. This, of course, required some heavy lifting.

"It was a hot day, besides," she says. "Fortunately, I had some COA students who volunteered to help, but eventually they kind of melted away."

Pointing to the brightly colored tiles interspersing the beach stones, she says she chose the colors to resemble the polychromatic lobster pots, and painted each tile with a real knot to further suggest the maritime theme.

"Look, this isn’t the best thing I’ve done — it was too spur of the moment," she confesses, looking down on her meandering stone path. "But at its best it really engaged people — especially children who came across it."

As if on cue a family passes below, and the two children noticing the path begin to follow it down toward the water, where it ends with a looped length of rusted chain. They stop at each tile to inspect the knots.

Ms. Bowen says she’d come back in a flash to participate in the second annual symposium in whatever capacity she can be of use. "We learned a lot from this," she says. "What works, what didn’t; what we should have done and didn’t. This was great, but it can and will get better."