Outside Silence by Stella Larkin at Copper Country Community Arts Center

HANCOCK, MI – The Copper Country Community Arts Center in Hancock is pleased to present Outside Silence, recent work by Marquette artist, Stella Larkin in the Kerredge Gallery now through October 7. Stella’s work includes driftwood and metal landscapes, fiber art totems and mixed media assemblage. She earned her BFA in Fiber Arts from Northern Michigan University in 1990.

Lake Superior is both inspirational and animate in Stella Larkin’s life and art. The synchronicity of her life-art-lake existence is evident as she walks Lake Superior’s shore and paddles its tributaries collecting driftwood, which is the foundation for her art. Born in Cincinnati, OH, raised in Lower Michigan, Stella has been charmed and fascinated by the powerful body of water outside her sauna door. Through this consciousness, Stella has fashioned a quiet, relatively self-sufficient, life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Time spent in third world countries has affected her view of our culture’s acquisitive nature. Accordingly, she likes to use found objects in her creations. She finds delight in everyday objects, which she assembles in repetitious patterns on driftwood bases that evolve into sculptural portraits. The individual personality and human limb-like shapes of the driftwood take on a venerated emblem or totemic form. The totem sculptures, like her found art assemblages are fused with spirit and soul, as they are both delicate and rustic at the same time.

The public is invited to an opening reception on Friday, September 15 from 6-8pm. This exhibition is supported by a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Copper Country Community Arts Center is located at 126 Quincy Street in Hancock. For more information call (906) 482-2333 or visit the website: www.coppercountryarts.com