The Story Behind...The Baking Sheets

New! Viewing hours in January. Saturdays, Jan. 14 and 28 from 2 to 5 p.m. and by appointment.

Everyone has heard the expression, “It was right under my nose the whole time.”

For Anastasia Glassman, a Midcoast creative who describes her artwork as “the collision of many interests,” the very tools and items she worked with every day in her catering company, Swan’s Way, were in fact, the raw materials right under her nose destined to be the art pieces in her ongoing December show at Pascal Hall.

Several years ago, Glassman pulled out one of her battered baking pans and discovered there was a beauty in the patina of the scorched underside. So, she used them as the background for a series of plant photographs.

With a pile of well-used baking pans sitting in her studio, Glassman eyed them in a new way. She saw them as blank canvases for a series of collages she wanted to make, using a collection of old tools and scraps of metal she had amassed over the years.  Attached with heavy-duty magnets on the underside of each sheet, the result is both raw and energetic. And it’s not just the magnets that will be drawing a crowd for this show.

Here is the Story Behind The Baking Sheets and three of her pieces currently on display.

After I sold Swan’s Way (my restaurant) in Camden, I bought land in Lincolnville and built my house. On the property was an old granite quarry. The bonus was there were lots of remnants from its days as a working quarry. Lots of cable and gears. The metal for the piece on the wall is from the old forge.

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It was the patina of the full-size sheet pans that compelled me, but once I went to a real grungy, used restaurant equipment store and found several of these ‘contiguous’ bread pans in the back of the place. I found the pans very graphic. I have used them both ways: by attaching the shapes on the outside bottom of the pans, the shapes seem to be floating; attaching them on the inside frames the shapes and confines them.

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I was experimenting with ways to not have a traditional wooden frame. On some pieces the wooden frame gives the piece a sense of completion and stature. But here, the T-squares keep the rustic, rough quality that is more appropriate to the work. You don’t want to confine it. Keep it volatile.

Glassman's artwork kicked off with an opening on Dec. 18. It will be open  by appointment. Call Pascal Hall 236-4272.

For more information about the individual pieces, email Anastasia at swansway@midcoast.com

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