PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Since moving to Aroostook County three years ago, artist Stacy Rink has taken opportunities to grow her work and showcase her contemporary and literary artistic influences.
During the First Friday Downtown Art Walk on March 6, Rink opened the first exhibit that she has done in Aroostook County — and in the state of Maine — since relocating from Las Vegas to Woodland with her husband Corey Rink.
“Call of the Wild” (left) and “Seed Pods” are two of the mixed media pieces showcased in “Booklore,” an exhibit by Woodland artist Stacy Rink at Wintergreen Arts Center. (Melissa Lizotte | The Star-Herald)
Titled “Booklore,” the exhibit at Wintergreen Arts Center features 13 mixed media pieces that Rink created using wood panels, acetate and acrylic paints to depict characters from classic and contemporary books such as “Frankenstein,” “The Call of the Wild,” the “American Gods” series and “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
Woodland artist Stacy Rink was inspired by classic books when creating the art in her new exhibit “Booklore” at Wintergreen Arts Center. Featured is “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (left) and “Crystals.” (Melissa Lizotte | The Star-Herald)
Three pieces — “Nightmares and Dreamscapes,” “Holy Fire” and “That None Should Die” — are ones Rink created by carving out designs in old books.
Rink used objects such as skulls and goblin figures to embody the often gothic tone of many of the featured books, including Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King.
“Working with books all day has inspired me to capture how books make us feel,” said Rink, who works at the Robert A. Frost Memorial Library in Limestone. “I wanted to convey the moods that the authors create in their books.”
Before coming to Maine, Rink, who is originally from Denver, Colorado, studied art at Metropolitan State University of Denver and showed her work in galleries across the country.
She said Aroostook County has given her a new way of looking at the world, which she sees as a possible influence in her future artwork.
“Nightmares and Dreamscapes” is a work that artist Stacy Rink created for her exhibit “Booklore” at Wintergreen Arts Center. (Melissa Lizotte | The Star-Herald)
Moving forward, Rink would like to develop larger-scale mixed media pieces and to become more involved in the local arts scene.
“People seem open to the idea of bringing more contemporary art to Aroostook County,” Rink said.
