Reception Sunday, 2-4 pm––

Sculptor Jim Travers

Opens Library Show

By Dottie Evans

Area residents will have an opportunity to view 13 welded steel sculptures by local sculptor Jim Travers in an upcoming exhibit at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library on Sunday, November 9. The exhibit will remain up through Tuesday, December 2.

A reception for Mr Travers will be held on the library’s main floor from 2 to 4 pm., where the pieces will also be on display.

“I’m especially excited about this show,” Mr Travers commented on Tuesday, “because there will be so much space dedicated to the 13 pieces. It is very unusual.”

For the past six years, Mr Travers, a self-taught artist, has dedicated himself to sculpture. His welded steel sculptures, created in his studio off Huntingtown Road, often incorporate found objects that have undergone extreme stress by heat, pressure, or forceful impact. Nevertheless, their inherent shape and integrity may be understood.

The pieces range in size from tabletop to monumental. Though abstract in nature, they may suggest human or natural forms, and they are frequently untitled. The smaller pieces, which he calls “scenics,” are often brightly colored and may include some representational elements.

Mr Travers’ body of work includes more than 100 pieces. He has sold several to art collectors, and has exhibited widely in Connecticut and New York.

He has won several awards in juried shows including, most recently, First Place for Sculpture from Watertown Art League, Watertown, in May; First Place for Sculpture from The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown (SCAN), also in May; and Best-In-Show from Artwell Gallery in Torrington in August.

For more information about the sculpture of Jim Travers, send email to JLTravers@earthlink.net or call 364-1326.