Amy Stacey Curtis stands in her work in progress, with three of the nine houses visible behind her. A cul-de-sac will be created on the floor of what was once a school gym at Presumpscot Commons in Westbrook. Chance Viles / American Journal
Artist Amy Stacey Curtis is working on one of her largest-scale installations ever – a makeshift mini neighborhood in Westbrook meant to evoke memories.
The Lyman artist’s goal with “The Color of Memory” is to capture memories sparked by color and the experiences of everyday people, including her own struggle with memory and mental health after suffering brain damage caused by long-term Lyme disease.
For the interactive exhibit that opens later this month, Curtis is constructing small “houses” in a former gym at the Presumpscot Commons senior living center on Main Street. Each will be painted a different color.
Amy Stacey Curtis stands near the houses to show the scale of the installation. Chance Viles / American Journal
The houses will be furnished with objects donated from the community, and each of the objects will be painted to match the color of its particular house. The objects will help fuel memories, Curtis said, and will give house its own personality. The widow of a former hoarder has donated materials for one house, she said, and other donated items range from tricycles to dolls heads and a small refrigerator.
At each house, visitors will be asked to record in a book the memories the color evoked for them. Eventually those books will be published as “The Color of Memory,” a piece of the project that will outlast the exhibit itself.
As of last week, nine houses have been freshly painted and each is in the process of being furnished. Construction is done with the help of some University of Southern Maine art students, and Presumpscot Commons residents and other community members have pitched in to paint donated items.
The covered gym floor will be designed into a cul-de-sac with a grassed park and wooden walkways connecting the homes, all ADA accessible.
When completed, visitors will walk the “neighborhood” moving home to home, adding their memories in the books.
The white home is Curtis’s “self-portraiture imprint,” and like the hoarder’s home, will reflect her own life.
“It’s inspired by what our house is like after years of dealing with health issues,” said Curtis, whose illness took her “in and out of two psych wards, dealing with psychosis.” Her speech was also affected, she lost muscle control.
“Seizures had me in chairs for 18 months,” Curtis said.
“The house was not as much of a priority, so the grass hasn’t been mowed we haven’t raked the leaves or the acorns,” Curtis said. “There is just random stuff in the drawers of our desk that are reflective of aspects of my brain injury, so there’s some medicine bottles but there’s also puzzle pieces. One of the things that we did to cope early on was do puzzles. It was something I got used to doing in the psychiatric wards.”
She sees the collaboration with students and the community as playing into a change of pace from her previous, more minimal works.
“It’s brighter now. It’s been about a year where it feels like the assistants are helping me again, not the other way around,” she said.
Her crown art piece was a series of large, interactive installations at nine old Maine mills over an 18-year period, from 1998-2016.
The Westbrook piece is a nice change of pace, she said.
“This piece has really exploded into elaborate fun and whimsy, which they normally were not,” Curtis said.
Art like the memory installation that brings both the community to Presumpscot Place and provides its residents with socially enriching entertainment is a welcome pleasure, said Chris LaRoche, director of the Westbrook Housing Authority, which operates the senior living center.
“It’s something we are thrilled to be a part of,” LaRoche said. “Art like this enhances the neighborhood connection, the city-wide connection of having this valuable historical space not only available to seniors, but also the community in general.”
Presumpscot Common is located in what was once the city’s high school and then for a time the junior high. The building is was erected in the 1800s and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
“My piece is on memory, so the former gym is so perfect. There are these amazing art deco tile walls that have so much character in them, and in themselves memory,” Curtis said.
The historic building works perfectly for the piece, said Kat Zagaria Buckley, USM director of art exhibitions and outreach.
“It’s an excellent place to think about the role of memory, being the old high school,” Buckley said. “Buildings like that hold so many memories for so many people. The gym is in the height of memory and emotion and adrenaline for many in their school days.”
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