The Sherman Library is pleased to announce a special art show titled “Free Spirit” – featuring small sculptures and paintings by Miriam Nelson, PhD. At the age of 55, Miriam or “Mimi” as she is fondly called, became a sculptor. Using stone, metal, marble, steel, aluminum and a free spirit, she started sculpting and has created small and monumental pieces. We invite you to meet the artist at a special gathering Sunday April 2, 3 – 4pm. Due to the artist’s age and health, masks are required for this event. The show will be on display at the Sherman Library from March 31 – May 10, 2023, both at the Library and on their website, www.ShermanLibrary.org.
Nelson says she conceives of the shapes to cultivate a visceral reaction in the viewer, not to capture the likeness of something. “Abstract pieces are much more emotional than pieces that delineate somebody or something” Nelson explains of her work. “I want a piece to lift somebody up and give them a feeling of elation, or delight, or humor, or whatever”.
A former psychotherapist, Nelson sculpted her first piece at the age of 55. She had always wanted to sculpt and when the Museum School at the Museum of Art in Coral Gables offered a class in stone sculptures in January of 1982, she signed up. Within a few years, she was exhibiting in galleries in and around Miami. Her first stone sculpture titled “Adam” is part of the Library show, and is the only non-abstract piece in the show. “I wanted people to see how I have evolved” says Nelson. She then worked in bronze and in larger pieces of steel and aluminum.
Nelson has produced small and large sculptures that are in homes on the Hudson River and at the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in Cazenovia, NY. She also paints . The walls of the Library feature some of her delightful landscapes. Just as she helped her clients as a psychotherapist to find inner strength and beauty in themselves, over the course of the last fifty years, Nelson has succeeded in extracting elegant and expressive forms from nature’s raw stone and metals and by using her paint brushes and oils.
She moved to Sherman in 1989 and will be celebrating her 100th birthday in October, 2023. We are very blessed to have her in our Sherman community.
For more information about this show and the Sherman Library, visit: www.shermanlibrary.org
Images: Sculptures and Paintings by Miriam Nelson, PHD
