Inspired by Nature

Lifestyle

Related Photos

Allegra Boverman/Gloucester Daily Times. Patricia Reed of Rockport makes whimsical creations using natural and found materials. She is the featured artist of the month at Rockport Public Library for November. This piece is titled "Siren."
"Horsey Peacock."
Allegra Boverman/Gloucester Daily Times. Patricia Reed of Rockport makes whimsical creations using natural and found materials. She is the featured artist of the month at Rockport Public Library for November. This piece is titled "Woods Sprite with Key."
Allegra Boverman/Gloucester Daily Times. Patricia Reed of Rockport makes whimsical creations using natural and found materials. She is the featured artist of the month at Rockport Public Library for November. This piece is titled "Musician-Magician."
Allegra Boverman/Gloucester Daily Times. Patricia Reed of Rockport makes whimsical creations using natural and found materials. She is the featured artist of the month at Rockport Public Library for November. This piece is titled "Giant Mosquito with Annoying Woods Sprite."
Allegra Boverman/Gloucester Daily Times Patricia Reed of Rockport with some of her whimsical creations using natural and found materials. She is the featured artist of the month at Rockport Public Library for November. This piece is titled "Woods Owl." Allegra Boverman/Gloucester Daily Times
"Enchanted, Ingratiating Grasshopper with Key."
Allegra Boverman/Gloucester Daily Times. Patricia Reed of Rockport with "Leaf Man," by Lois Ehlert, a children's book that inspired some of her whimsical creations using natural and found materials. She is the featured artist of the month at Rockport Public Library for November.
Photos by Allegra Boverman/Gloucester Daily Times. Patricia Reed of Rockport with one of her whimsical creations using natural and found materials. She is the featured artist of the month at Rockport Public Library for November. This piece is titled "Rare Root Woodrat." Photos by Allegra Boverman/Gloucester Daily Times.
"Rolling Leaf Man with Crystal an Key."

Discussion

PLEASE NOTE CHANGES IN POLICY: Commenters are required to have a username with a valid and verified email address. Gloucestertimes.com reserves the right to ban the IP address of any commenter (person) found using multiple aliases under multiple e-mail addresses in a deceptive manner. Posts that do not meet site standards, which can be found here, will be removed.

If you are experiencing problems logging in or posting comments, please contact Disqus' help center by clicking here.

comments powered by Disqus

November 28, 2012

Inspired by Nature

By Gail McCarthy Staff Writer The Gloucester Daily Times Wed Nov 28, 2012, 11:08 PM EST

Patricia Yarborough Reed has 25 fanciful sculptures on display at Rockport Public Library. She was inspired to create these stick creatures after reading the children’s book “Leaf Man” by Lois Ehlert to her younger art students at Eastern Point Day School in Gloucester.

“We made leaf men and other critters in class, but I decided to take things a step further in my own artwork. The more I looked around me the more I saw fascinating organic forms in such things as shells, roots, and stones,” she wrote in an artist statement. “The fun thing about these sculptures is my use of ‘unexpected’ elements such as the brass gears, cogs, lamp parts, locks and keys. They were owned by my paternal grandparents who restored antique furniture. When they passed away, I inherited three mysterious cigar boxes full of these but what to do with them?”

Several years later, she learned about “Steampunk art.”

“Steampunk art is a world of fantasy that often combines utilitarian objects from the past with a vision of their utility in the future. We find combinations of living things or things made from organic life , and various kinds of machinery parts made long ago. It is art that is totally fantastical, non-logical and lots of fun,” she wrote about the works in the exhibit.

The show closes Nov. 30.

Gail McCarthy can be reached at 978-283-7000 x3445, or gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com.