A two-person show featuring the work of Nikki Millonzi and Don Best is scheduled.

NORWAY – The Fare Share Commons, under the auspices of the Commons Art Collective, will host a two-person show featuring paintings by Nikki Millonzi and paintings and sculptures by Don Best.

The show, titled A Sense of Direction, will open from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 8, with a public reception. It will run through May 29.

Millonzi, a Norway resident who has taught art at the Sumner Elementary School for the past 12 years, will present, among other works, a recently completed map, an artistic view of downtown Norway commissioned by Norway Downtown Revitalization and destined for display in the Main Street information kiosk.

Work on the map began with aerial photographs taken by Millonzi in October 2002 and the spring of 2003. Then the artist turned to early hand-drawn aerial maps for help in dealing with the challenges particular to the project relating to scale and perspective.

Ultimately, the problems were solved in the act of drawing. The map, rendered in water colors, colored pencil and gouache in an almost naive style, suggests precision without being truly to scale. It expresses a quality of place and, in a practical way, will allow visitors and shoppers to locate Main Street businesses.

Making it, Millonzi said, took her back to a time in her childhood when she drew and colored maps of her neighborhood.

She will also present four outsize paintings that incorporate collage elements and give expression to the feeling tones and qualities of the four compass points. These paintings were made more than a decade ago and grew out of her interest in American Indian cultures and, in particular, the relation to the land and sense of place shared by those cultures. These images recently reworked by the artist; will be shown together for the first time.

In making them, Millonzi was interested in discovering what her own experience and sensibility would bring to the archetypes of North, South, East and West.

Don Best, a Maine College of Art graduate and Greenwood resident, has participated in several shows at the Commons, where his simple and elegant sculptures in wood, wire and paper have been a particular favorite of gallery-goers. Among the works included in this show will be a series of hand-painted dancing figures sculpted from pine. This work grew out of Best’s longtime involvement in the Harrison-based Moving Through dance group, in which Millonzi also participates. Members use dance as a form of personal exploration and transformation.

Best and Millonzi will present one in a series of conversations with the artists at 7 p.m. May 29, at the Commons. The public is invited to come and talk to them about their work.

The Commons Art Collective was formed in 2001 to encourage creation and sharing of local art through support, interaction and collaboration. The Fare Share Commons operates as a year-round gallery with monthly openings. The collective is supported by its members, gallery-goer donations and, recently, a grant from the Maine Community Foundation Expansion Arts Fund.