Stephanie Adam has been painting and exhibiting her work for a few decades. This month the Newtown resident is presenting her first solo exhibition at C.H. Booth Library. “Antique Tools” is a collection of Ms Adam’s recent work. It will remain on view in the Olga Koepkne Memorial Meeting Room at the library until February 27.

Stephanie Adam’s work is in a number of public and private collections, from The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield and The Cincinnati Art Museum to Connecticut Savings Bank and Coopers & Lybrand, among many others. The multi-award winning artist has a very distinct style and shape. Her paintings are always square. Shown here are “Found Saw,” on the left, which measures 44 by 44 inches, and “Tranquil Calipers,” which measures 36 by 36 inches. Both are acrylics on canvas.

—photos courtesy Peter Bagger

Traditional Tools Continue

 To Inspire A Modern Artist

By Shannon Hicks

“Antique Tools,” the new exhibition in the Olga Koepkne Meeting Room of C.H. Booth Library, is a presentation of the recent colorful acrylic paintings by Newtown artist Stephanie Adam. The show will remain on view until February 27.

Ms Adam lives in Newtown with her husband, Peter Bagger, and their two sons, Erik and Adam. She works on her artwork at her Brushy Hill Road home and works as an art teacher at Middle Gate School.

Her works are always colorful.

“Color is the essential element in my work,” she put into an artist’s statement. Her paintings are always square and edged by patterns created with abstract and representational images.

“These patterns define and confine the interior, flat surface of a single color,” her statement continues. “The tension felt between the restful center of the painting and its animated borders produces a work that I feel is bold, simple, and direct.”

Ms Adam has done these square paintings for years. Her works have been presented in solo exhibitions and group shows in Connecticut, New York City, and nearby states for three decades (one of her earlier group exhibitions was at National Academy of Art in Cincinnati in 1974), yet “Antique Tools” is her first exhibition in Newtown.

Many of her paintings incorporate patterns derived — as the title of the current show implies — antique tools. Ms Adam relies on the Newtown Trails Books for the hikes she takes around town, and it is while on these foot treks that she comes across many pieces that are incorporated into her paintings. During one walk that followed a railroad track Ms Adam located a number of cotter pins, or split pins.

One of Ms Adam’s recent works incorporates a cotter pin into its image. “Peter’s Shovel” shows, in its lower left corner, a shovel, an oversized skeleton key, and what looks like an unused cotter pin.

On railroad tracks, a switch facilitates the movement of a train from one track to another. A nut and bolt fasten the control rod to the switch. Cotter pins — split pins that can be inserted through holes in two or more pieces and then bent at the ends to fasten the pieces together — keeps the nut from unscrewing and falling off.

“Peter’s Shovel,” and its unusual tool, drew a lot of attention during last weekend’s opening reception.

“A lot of people were interested in the objects and images I use,” Ms Adam said this week.

“Cotter pins have an interesting shape and when the new ones replace old ones, the old ones are left behind right at the train tracks,” she said. “There was one trail in town where I found a number of them very easily.

“At the reception when people were asking about some of my imagery, the cotter pins were a common curiosity,” she said. “A lot of people were asking about them.”

Other items that have shown in up her works include calipers and scissors, which make an appearance in “Tranquil Calipers.” Calipers and what appear to be gardening or pruning shears show up in “Summer’s End.” In “Stolen Alphabet,” a 44-square-inch work, the dominant tool is a basic handsaw.

Ms Adam is currently represented by Ezair Gallery, on Madison Avenue in New York City. Before that she was represented by Babcock Gallery. She began looking for a different gallery to represent her, and moved over to Ezair about six months ago.

The gallery correctly promotes her work as “playful and appealing.”

“I wanted to be with a gallery that deals only with contemporary art,” explained the artist, who will be featured next year in an Ezair show.

The Adam-Bagger household is home to a plethora of artistic talent.

Stephanie’s husband Peter has worked in the film industry for years. He is also a strong supporter for the art done by the rest of his family — his photos accompany this story — he has certainly exposed son Adam to the film business, and he helped son Erik put together a CD a few years ago.

Adam Bagger is interested in video and film arts. A junior at Boston University, he won first place in his division of The James Diaz Memorial Video Festival last May. He is pursuing a bachelor of science in film with a minor concentration in psychology.

Adam interned with CBS News and also worked as a wedding videographer last summer, and hopes to spend a semester abroad studying Australian cinema in Sydney and to hold an internship in Los Angeles before graduating.

Erik, the younger Bagger son, is a junior at Newtown High School. He has acted in school plays and is very musically inclined. Erik is a vocalist, guitarist, and a composer of music in the jazz-blues-R&B vein.

Eighteen months ago Erik and some of his friends organized a benefit concert to raise money for the high school’s sound system, which desperately needs upgrading, and in 2001 he released a self-produced album called Aug. 2001, for which he also handled recording and engineering duties.

Erik also performs music for art shows at Middle Gate School, where his mother teaches art to the school’s first through fourth grade students.

“I love teaching,” Ms Adam said. “I love watching the kids grow because you can really see them develop over a number of years. They also inspire me.”

Between her work at school and the surroundings at home — and even the relaxing walks she takes in her hometown — Stephanie Adam apparently can’t help but be inspired by her life. She also has a painterly talent that allows her to share these sights and sounds with the world.

C.H. Booth Library, at 25 Main Street, is open from 10 am to 8 pm Monday through Thursday, noon to 5 pm on Friday, 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, and 1 to 5 pm on Sunday.