Currently on View:

A Mind of Winter

Nov. 30, 2024 - Mar. 19, 2025

As the winter season settles in, life slows and nature rests. Traditionally, winter’s cold and quiet days pushed artisans indoors, providing the time and space to focus on the delicate transformation of raw materials. With planting and harvesting behind them, they devoted themselves to the artistry of fine craft, elevating utilitarian objects and everyday subject materials into works of enduring beauty. A Mind of Winter explores this timeless connection between winter’s quietude and the artistry of handcrafted objects.

Works featured include Julie Lake’s own works, alongside pieces by local photographer Zoë Zimmerman, Colorado-based wood sculptor Chris DeKnikker, and Maine metalsmith Erica Moody. Each artist brings their own unique relationship with materials to the exhibit, reflecting a commitment to the craft that transcends their respective disciplines.

Julie Lake

Julie Lake’s pieces are a testament to that transformative process. Her stainless steel sculptures and ceramic vessels, with their striking balance of industrial strength and organic form, invite viewers to explore visual contrasts, between hardness and softness, along with tradition and innovation. Each piece reflects Lake’s intimate relationship with her materials, demonstrating the power of careful craftsmanship in bringing raw elements to life.

Erica Moody

Maine metalsmith Erica Moody’s utensils elevate the practical into the beautiful. Using traditional metalworking and analog machines, Moody’s pieces invite the user to experience a deep connection to the maker, transforming simple tasks into moments of grace. Her work speaks to the joy of creating objects that are both functional and beautiful, capturing the essence of fine craft: a dedication to the process, a respect for materials, and a desire to elevate the everyday.

Chris DeKnikker

Chris DeKnikker’s wooden sculptures, including the mesmerizing Muscle Memory, bring a different dimension to the show. His obsession with precision is evident in every hand-cut and fitted piece, as he painstakingly assembles organic forms that seem almost to breathe. DeKnikker’s sculptures are filled with a sense of movement and memory, as though the wood itself holds the history of its transformation, embodying winter’s themes of stillness and slow, deliberate change.

Zoë Zimmerman

Photographer Zoë Zimmerman adds the only two-dimensional work included in the exhibit with her albumen prints, a technique she has modified using her unique “Zimmerman Method.” The albumen process, dating back to the mid-19th century, involves coating paper with egg whites, lending her images an ethereal, timeless quality. The pieces featured in the show are selections from her older works, chosen for their paradoxical sense of life and energy despite their stillness. Zimmerman’s prints employ traditional craft while infusing each piece with a modern sensibility.  Along with the subject matter, they reflect the patient, contemplative nature of winter itself.

A Mind of Winter invites visitors to reflect on the craftsmanship and intention behind each piece. It’s a celebration of how winter’s quiet allows artists to engage deeply with their materials, leading to the creation of objects which transcend mere function or decoration. By highlighting the relationship between maker and material, the exhibit honors the timeless beauty that arises from patient, thoughtful creation, embodying the enduring significance of fine craft.