Sculpture depicts river, land, sky

PERU — William Barriss Martin has displayed his creative works all over the United States and Canada, but one of his favorite venues for creating art is in schools.

“I find great delight in creating something in a school,” he said Wednesday afternoon as he and his son, Case, were installing a three-piece suspended sculpture in Dirigo Elementary School's library. “Budgets are low in Maine and I've done major works. But I treat this with the same amount of energy and intensity.”

For the past five months, he has been designing the stainless steel, holographic-coated ceiling sculptures at his studio on the water in Thomaston.

He designs and welds, Case installs.

“When I started working on this project, I saw how my two grandchildren responded,” he said. “I want it to pique children's curiosity and challenge their imaginations.”

The sculpture, comprised of about 12 elements of stainless steel with applied holographic films, is designed to move with the air currents on multiple levels.

“Every time someone comes in here, it will look different,” said Case Martin, a building contractor who lives in Easton, Mass.

“I live on the river. The sculpture is dynamic with movement and flow. It reflects the movement of tides, mudflats. It's a metaphor related to nature, energy and the spirit of things. It's an abstract of a natural phenomenon,” said the elder Martin.

The completed sections of the sculpture are hung so they will swivel. The library's skylight will reflect the light, whether it's bright and sunny or gray and overcast. The sections range from about seven feet in diameter to two feet in diameter.

Martin has works displayed in Toronto, Rockland, and Marshwood High School in Eliot, among many other places. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and holds an engineering degree from the Case Institute of Technology in Ohio.

His work is the last of the four commissioned by the district's Percent for Art program when the new elementary school was completed last summer.

The week before, Monhegan Island artist Mike Stiler completed a 3-D, 15-foot-long piece made from plywood that depicts a father and daughter paddling down the Androscoggin River. In the background is a mill, and along the border and throughout are moose and turtles.

Peter Prevost of Winthrop created an abstract painting of children on a fair swing.

The other work of art was created by Whitefield artist, Natahse Mayers, who created a four panel depiction of connected roadways in the district's four member towns.

The state set aside about $50,000 for the school's art. The state funded about $14 million for the new school that is now a part of the Western Foothills RSU 10 district.

eadams@sunjournal.com