AUBURN – Jonathan Mess is a local artist best known for his installation art that served as the centerpiece for the Blaine House Conference on Maine’s Creative Economy held at the Bates Mill Complex in 2004.

His pieces featured discarded machine parts and other throw-away items scavenged from vacant areas of the mill and put together in new ways to form a new identity.

These pieces, displayed throughout the conference area, served as a metaphor for the rebirth of the Bates Mill Complex.

Several are now part of the collections of Museum L/A and the Franco-American Heritage Center.

Newer pieces by Jonathan Mess will be displayed at the Great Falls Grill, Two Great Falls Plaza, with an opening Thursday, July 20.

The opening features a three-course meal with wine for $38, starting with a social hour at 5:30 and meal at 6:30 p.m.

Mess is attracted to objects that have a past. He incorporates into his work objects found at the side of the road, in old mill buildings, at construction sites and in dumps.

He believes that whether rusty, tarnished, weathered or abused, these objects have an inherent story expressed in their unique color, texture and character.

Mess develops his work layer upon layer, blending, sewing, weaving and piercing pieces with the found objects.

“I digest life through the layers in my art. Materials intertwine, creating new relationships and a reinvented context.

“Layers of ceramic forms and found objects challenge the viewer to look past the surface to see what may be hidden within,” Mess said.