Community packs POAC for ‘Second Life’ debut

SANDPOINT — Artists and art-lovers packed Pend Oreille Arts Council’s Second Avenue gallery Friday evening for the debut of “Second Life: Art from the Unexpected” — a celebration of creation and revitalization. 

The monthlong exhibition features paintings, sculptures and other works from eight local creatives who integrate repurposed, upcycled and found materials into their art. 

One artist, Kristina Ludwig, is showcasing a gown made entirely of birch bark. Another, Barry Burgess, is displaying a trio of cubist creatures made of foam-core board and salvaged computer parts that imagines a future with cyborg pets. 

The exhibition also includes four works by Judy Minter that collectively display 12 three-dimensional faces protruding from an earthy-toned backdrop and grinning contentedly as if basking in a ray of warm sunlight. 

Minter owns Design Details — a Rathdrum business specializing in custom decorative interior finishes. While working in homes and buildings undergoing a remodel, she salvages materials like old cabinet doors destined for the dump and integrates them into works of art. 

“Instead of having them burn them or throw them away at a job site that I'm on, I go, ‘Wait! I'll take that,’” Minter said. 

To create the works she’s showing in “Second Life,” Minter used real human faces to create molds, which then served as templates for duplicates made of epoxy clay. 

Minter recruited a collection of students from North Idaho College to serve as models, which required them to remain expressionless for 30 minutes while a mask of specialized clay solidified on their face. 

“It sounds easy, but it’s not, because people have a hard time sitting still,” Minter said. “A couple of them couldn’t keep from drooling. But for the most part, most of them made it through okay.” 

As a “thank you” for their contribution, each student received a unique souvenir: a life-size clay replica of their own face. 

Minter said the specialized paints and clays that go into her works have a finite shelf life, and that the gifts were a convenient way to use up her remaining materials. 

“I wanted to do as many faces as I could,” she added. “That way, I use my product up and don’t just throw it away.” 

The works in “Second Life: Art from the Unexpected” will remain on display at the gallery through the end of the month, April 30.

    Minter created the works by making epoxy clay replicas of real human faces.