NEWBURYPORT — Marblehead artists Joyce Bartlett and Diane Treadwell were selected to be a part of the 25th Anniversary “Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay” exhibit, installed at Maudslay State Park in Newburyport.
After the excitement of taking part in last year’s exhibit, Bartlett was eager to participate again this year, though she was uncertain if she would have the time this year. However, a conversation with Treadwell convinced her to move forward with the idea.
“Diane and I are old friends that haven’t seen each other in a long time and she works with wildlife, so I called her one day because there was an injured animal in my yard,” Bartlett said. “We’re walking around trying to save this animal, she asked me what I was doing and I started talking about the exhibit, so we decided right then and there that we would do it together.”
Each year, the exhibit has a different theme that inspires artists to create works that weave together stories, emotions, and materials. This year’s theme is titled “Threads,” and it inspired Bartlett and Treadwell to create three large prayer flags with three different women on them, as they believe that “women are the threads that hold society together.”
“We wanted it to have a feminist theme because of everything that’s going on in the world, but we also wanted them to be positive,” Bartlett said. “The whole idea of a prayer flag in Buddhism is to send really good energy out onto the wind and we just really liked that.”
The prayer flags consist of an older woman, a young girl, and the Earth Mother, inspired by the South American goddess of Earth. The painting of the young girl includes half a dozen prayer flags, painted by Bartlett’s six year old granddaughter, Harper Kresl.
Each of these women embodies a different stage of life, evolving throughout Bartlett and Treadwell’s artistic process.
“When you’re creating it, you have a vision in your mind,” Treadwell said. “But once you start creating something, it has a life of its own, and these just kind of developed as we went along.”
When the exhibit was first installed, Bartlett and Treadwell received an overwhelming response from the community and from women that felt inspired by their artwork.
“Seeing the number of women that came up to Diane and I and spoke to us once they saw the prayer flags was amazing,” Bartlett said. “They wanted to talk about them, they wanted to talk about women.”
“All the young girls wanted their pictures taken with the young girl doing the same pose,” Treadwill said.
The exhibit closes on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 12 p.m. For more information on Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay, visit MaudslaySculpture.org. or visit Facebook at Outdoor Sculpture At Maudslay. Parking is available at the park with a parking fee. For directions and additional information about Maudslay State Park, visit https://www.mass.gov/locations/maudslay-state-park.
