SACO — Paintings. Sculpture. Sea glass crafts? You bet.

At the Sidewalk Arts Festival in Saco, those were but a few of the items displayed by crafters, who huddled in the shade of their tents to peddle the results of their labors. With Main Street closed to traffic, the downtown was transformed into a dizzying potpourri of creativity, the hot pavement commandeered for use as a communal playground of sorts, all bustle and color.

It was more than Meri Levesque could have hoped for. It was her first time displaying her artwork at the event, and arrayed around her booth was an eclectic assortment of mirrors, picture frames and other mosaics, brought to vibrant life by her infusion of colored sea glass.

With decorated clay pots and birdhouses splaying from her booth in a sprawling arrangement, Levesque said it was her mirrors that she enjoys selling the most.

“I just like the idea that they’re hanging somewhere,” she said. “When I pass away, my art will still be hanging in someone’s home. That’s my legacy.”

The Sidewalk Arts Festival has quite a legacy of its own. Nadine DeSilva, the event’s executive director, said it’s one of the oldest festivals in Maine ”“ going strong now for 44 years. It’s the result of about five months’ worth of weekly meetings, figuring out ways of improving the experience for both artists and their patrons.

“We always look at the event after and say, ”˜What can we do to make it even better next year?’” said DeSilva. “In this age of instant gratification, it can be tricky.”

Closing off Main Street was the biggest change this year. Before, she said, Pepperell Square was closed off while the main drag downtown was left open, but this year the committee decided to invert that formula, making it a safer atmosphere for all involved.

“Sometimes with cars going by, they would pay so much attention to the art and vendors that things could get a little dicey,” she said.

Not so over this past weekend. With freedom to move around, artists like James Murray could rest assured that their wares wouldn’t be clipped by distracted motorists. In Murray’s case, the art came in the form of handcrafted wood sculptures, many of them incorporating clocks, and others inspired by theoretical physics, particularly string theory.

A theory of the makeup of particulate matter in the universe, string theory postulates the existence of extra spatial dimensions, so small and curled up that humans don’t actively see or interact with them. To imitate this concept, many of Murray’s clock sculptures and other work featured a mind-bending use of three-dimensional space, popping out at the viewer boldly before curling back in on itself.

“In grad school, I was reading more books on theoretical physics than on art history,” said Murray, a woodworking and sculpture professor at Southern Maine Community College in Portland. “I’ve always found it interesting to incorporate that aspect into my work.”

His decidedly unique brand of art is more common nowadays, said DeSilva, citing the changing nature of the art world as one of the biggest alterations to the overall makeup of the festival.

Adding to that unique flavor was an interactive arrangement in the middle of Main Street at which people could come and paint decorations onto the side of a city trash can. Sponsored by the Saco Public Works Department, the effort was a way to get people thinking artistically while beautifying the trash receptacles found at the city’s parks and beaches.

“We did this at our open house last year, and wanted to do it again,” said Public Works Director Patrick Fox. “We figured, ”˜What better place?’”

Other members of the department, including Myles Gammage and Tyler Plummer, helped add their own artistic touches to the trash cans. Fox said it provides Public Works with a rare opportunity to interact and touch base with the public.

“If it’s a success, and we get some good feedback, it could become an annual event,” he said.

Other art at the festival was more traditional in nature, such as the oil and watercolor paintings of artist Nancy Clark, who has been rendering Maine landscapes and seascapes for the past 30 years. This was her fifth Sidewalk Arts Festival, and to her mind, the best, due in part to the closure of the street.

“I’m very excited that the street is closed,” she said. “It makes for such freedom; it’s a wonderful atmosphere. This is spectacular.”

More importantly, it gave Clark, and the other artists at the event, an opportunity to touch people with their work.

“I like to offer people a sense of beauty and peace,” she said.

— Staff Writer Jeff Lagasse can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 319 or [email protected].