NHS 1965 News

A different perspective: Northfield artist hoping her work with mirrors, windows and steel drives gallery-goers curiosity
By: Pauline Schreiber of the Faribault Daily News
Posted: Sunday, November 2, 2008 12:12 am

FARIBAULT — A castle made of mirrors, metal and glass is ready for the imaginations of those who view it at the Paradise Center for the Arts gallery this month.

And, the artist who created it is just as ready as anyone to walk around it and watch how light glints off its mirrored surfaces and shadows and light play off the walls.

Jennifer Wolcott, a rural Northfield artist, works Thursday to assemble a castle she created out of mirrors, metal and glass.

“I had a concept for the castle, but wasn’t sure how it would turn out,” said Northfield artist Jennifer Wolcott, as she walked around the assembled work in the Paradise gallery.

“Isn’t it fun?” she said.

A lace-edge table cloth is cut from steel, windows formed with pictures of windows, mirrored walls and layers of images are sandblasted on glass walls trimmed in metal.

Wolcott hopes both young and old who come and see her gallery show, “Black and White: Multiples and Variation,” find it as much fun to view as she had creating it.

Besides the castle, there are bungee jumping birds, book-head dancers and black and white party hats.

“There’s going to be sheets of paper and instructions so kids, or even adults, can make their own party hats,” Wolcott said.

Her hope is that gallery-goers who opt to make a party hat at home, bring them back and put them at the base of her party hat display for more “variation” on black and white.

Wolcott spent 25 years working for Sheldahl Inc. of Northfield as a process engineer before being laid off. She qualified for displaced worker assistance, so she went back to college at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, graduating with honors in 2003.

Since her graduation, she has created sculptures in her rural Northfield studio.

“I am driven by curiosity,” she said. “I respond to the colors and forms of the world and try to figure out how to use them and why they have the effect they do.”

Torches, hammers and kilns are her tools.

A reception at which people can meet Wolcott and view her work will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 7 in the Paradise gallery.

Posted by Norm Larsen and Pat Nelson