Bethany Library Previews Work Of Wallingford Artist

This work “Pieces” is one of many mixed-media works by Wallingford artist Mary Burk Smith that is on display at Bethany’s Clark Memorial Library through Sept. 6

BETHANY – The works of award-winning Wallingford Artist Mary Burk Smith will be on display at the Clark Memorial Library in Bethany through Sept. 6

Smith, an award-winning artist who works in a variety of mediums, is displaying selection of three-dimensional box constructions and mixed media pieces at the library. She is joined by Bethany artist Beverly Johnson, who will be displaying a variety of functional and structural clay pieces.

“We named the exhibit ‘pieces’ because we each worked with pieces of a wide variety of materials and shaped or juxtaposed them with others to give them a new artistic identity,” Smith said. “This is true of Beverly’s sculptural and functional clay pieces as well as my box constructions and mixed media collages.”

Smith, who has more than 50 awards to her credit, is a member of the New Haven Paint & Clay Club, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Connecticut Women Artists, The Mystic Museum of Art, and the Blue Ridge Mountain Art Association of Blue Ridge, GA. In addition, she taught art courses at Southern and Housatonic Community College.

A Norwalk native, Smith began her art studies at the Silvermine School of the Arts and Housatonic. She went on to get her bachelor’s and master’s degree in studio art from Southern. She also attended the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Her works are held in public and private art collections in the United States and Japan.

A member of the New Haven Paint & Club and the Northeastern Connecticut Art Guild. Johnson was an art teacher at Shelton High School for 27 years and a member of the Northeastern Connecticut Art Guild.

She was the founder, chair and co-chair of the Finnish American Heritage Society’s annual FACES art and craft exhibit.

Johnson also received her bachelor’s and master’s degree in art from Southern. It was there she and Smith met and have remained close personal friends.

The exhibit, which will be on display through Sept. 6, will be held in the library’s lower-level meeting room, which is open in August Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The opening reception will take place Aug. 14 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the library.