Self-taught Cabot artist Wilma Lovely will exhibit her unusual and delightful artwork at City Center in Montpelier from August 8 - September 4, 2010. The pieces in this exhibit are all built on pieces of antique roofing slate, embellished with a variety of materials.
"I'm proud that everything I create is made from recycled or re-used materials," says Lovely. "Some of them have old jewelry and buttons, some use pieces of broken glass, some have the tops of medicine bottles from the unit where I get dialysis three times a week, and one even has pieces of a man's golden belt!"
Lovely's work includes abstract and decorative motifs, as well as figurative pieces representing animals, birds, and flowers.
Wilma Lovely was born on July 8, 1924 on a farm in Calais, Vermont, where she lived until she was orphaned at age 10. She and her siblings were then raised at the Junior Order of American Mechanics home in Tiffin, Ohio, which she remembers with great fondness.After graduating from high school, Wilma returned to Vermont and married Lloyd Lovely, a granite worker. After a number of years Lloyd began to collect metals and other "junk" on the side for resale and recycling. It was at this point that Wilma, who always had an artistic nature, began to see the potential of the colorful electrical wire, resisters, capacitors, and other components in televisions and other small appliances. She began to use them as art materials, creating colorful assemblages on old pieces of board.
Lovely has continued to develop and expand into the use of new surfaces and materials, and this exhibit presents her most recent work on antique slates. City Center is located at State and Main Streets in Montpelier; the space there is managed by the Art Resource Association. More images of Wilma Lovely's work are available at wilmalovely.com.
Images: Top: Bubbles, dialysis materials and beads, 14 x 9", 2009; Bottom: A Red Bouquet, glass fragments, beads, plastic-coated wire, buttons, 14 x 8", 2007.
