Portland will be getting more public art in late spring when Maine artist Pamela Moulton installs a work called “Every Tree Tells a Story” in Payson Park.
The installation will be the latest presented by TempoArt, a Portland nonprofit organization focused on public art in the city.
The installation will consist of four freestanding immersive and colorful sculptures near the park’s baseball field and skating rink. The pieces “almost seem like the understory of a tree teased out of the ground,” Moulton said.
The trees will be made from “derelict” fishing nets and other gear with a metal substructure and be colored in hues of pink, peach and orange, Moulton said. They’ll be about 10 to 12 feet high and about 7 to 8 feet in diameter. Moulton said she plans to be at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland on Saturday doing workshops that will help her create elements for the sculptures. She plans to hold other workshops at schools and cultural organizations to gather more collaborative input for the work.
Moulton, who works out of a studio in Brunswick, plans to begin working on a section of the sculpture in April. The pieces will be in place by June, she said. It’s up to the city to determine whether the pieces stay in place for one year or two, Moulton said. The park is located near the Back Cove, with views of the city’s downtown across the water.
Other public art installations TempoArt has worked on include “Gathering Stones” by Jesse Salisbury on the Eastern Promenade in 2020, and “Mother’s Garden” by Daniel Minter in East Bayside 2019. The former was an arranged series of elegantly shaped boulders of granite and basalt along the Eastern Prom trail, while the latter consisted of five, 10-foot-tall wooden pieces at Anderson and Fox streets that address the cultural traditions and are symbolic of the food of the African diaspora and recent immigrants to Portland.
For more information, go to tempoartmaine.org or pamelamoulton.com.
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