A ‘Light-Hearted’ Traveling Exhibition With A Serious Message

By Shannon Hicks

David Merrill may have moved out of Newtown, but a work in progress in his studio makes it look otherwise. Mr Merrill, who moved into Southbury recently with his wife Beryl, is back to work on a commissioned painting of Newtown’s Main Street on Labor Day. He is working on that painting now that he has finished concentrating on decorating a three-foot tall Fiberglas heart with scenes that depict, as the sculpture has been named, “The Heart of New England.”

One side of Mr Merrill’s heart features Mt Katahdin in Maine; Pilgrim’s Tower, in Provincetown on Cape Cod; the shoreline of Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire; West Quoddy Lighthouse, also in Maine; Maine’s Acadia National Park; Newport Bridge; a view of Mystic Seaport that includes a lobster boat; the lighthouse at Port Judith, Rhode Island; and Gillette Castle in East Haddam.

The other side includes views of a New England-style barn, the Green Mountains, Mount Washington and its weather observatory, The Nook Farm at The Mark Twain Homestead in Hartford, the covered bridge in Cornwall, Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, a sugar house, a hot air balloon, a schooner weathervane … and even Fenway Park.

“I’m a Yankees fan, but I felt Fenway was part of the heart of New England,” Mr Merrill said. “I couldn’t ignore that.”

The sculpture will be part of an exhibition of works, painted hearts, that have been created to celebrated the first anniversary of The Praxair Heart and Vascular Center at Danbury Hospital, which opened its doors in January 2005. The exhibit was created as a way to thank the community for its support of the hospital’s effort to establish a cardiac care center to serve the region.

The three-dimensional hearts weigh about 15 pounds; their bases weigh another 35 pounds, to hold them securely balanced and in place. The hearts were manufactured in Poland by the same company that supplies the cows for CowParade. One side of the heart has a smooth surface, while the other has a more sculptured appearance.

Painting the three-dimensional sculpture posed challenges Mr Merrill, who has been painting since the mid 1950s, hadn’t seen in quite a while.

“It was very difficult to get straight lines,” he said, pointing to the upper ridge of the Cornwall Bridge as an example. “One side of the heart is contoured, so I had to really work to create the image of a straight line. Those contours were tough.”

Before he began painting on his sculpted heart, Mr Merrill covered the work with two coats of gesso. After allowing that to dry for two days, he began adding his design.

Knowing the hearts needed to be completed by February 1, Mr Merrill “worked so hard on it every day,” he said. “I find that I get excited about a project, and then you feel a little empty when you’ve finished it. You live with it, you work with it, and then you have to say good-bye to it.

“It’s very different, this project,” he said. “There is a tremendous amount of variety among the artists, which will make this a great show.”

A total of 37 artists from across the state and even a few from outside Connecticut (two from New York and one from Massachusetts) designed hearts for “Heartbeat of Our Community.” Seven of the artists did designs for two hearts.

“The Heartbeat of Our Community” will open with a reception at The Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield on Sunday, February 12, from 4:30 to 7 pm. It will be on view at the museum for that day only.

The collection will then be divided into two sections, with some of the hearts moved to Danbury Fair Mall and others being placed at Danbury Hospital, to be shown February 14 until February 23.

On February 23 the hearts at the hospital will also move to the mall, where most will remain on view until mid-May.

From February 25 until May 16, a small collection of the hearts will go on a tour of area towns in an outing dubbed “Heart Parade.” This tour will include stops in Redding, Brookfield, Newtown (March 27 to April 9 at C.H. Booth Library), Bethel, Ridgefield and Southbury.

The culmination of “The Heartbeat of Our Community” will be a gala auction of the hearts on Thursday, May 18. Proceeds will go to the Danbury Hospital Development Fund for the benefit of The Praxair Regional Heart and Vascular Center at Danbury Hospital.

“Hearts are especially important to us here at Danbury Hospital,” Frank J. Kelly, the president and CEO of Danbury Hospital said during a press conference on December 1 to publicly announce the project.

“We thought it was only fitting that we demonstrate that gratitude in a very visible and, I think, fun way,” Mr Kelly continued.

Dr Hal Wasserman, the director of cardiac catheterization at The Praxair Center, was also enthusiastic about the project in December.

“This art exhibit is going to help enormously in raising awareness of the need for people to take better care of their hearts,” Dr Wasserman said. “We know that lifelong health begins in childhood, so it is essential that we engage children, too.

“What better way to remind them to be heart conscious than with dozens of ‘light-hearted,’ imaginatively painted heart sculptures on display,” he added.

The Praxair Center offers the full spectrum of advanced cardiac services such as heart bypass, valve replacement and repair, and angioplasty. Surgeons performed the first open heart surgery at the center on January 24, 2005, and have since performed more than 200 procedures.

Hearts are a new design for the makers of the CowParade cows. The company has been working with cows since 1999, pointed out Jerry Elbaum, president of CowParade, who called the unusual design “a real departure” for his company. More than 30 cities around the world have hosted CowParade events since the first one appeared in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1998.

But the cow molds are already being filled again, and future exhibits are already being worked on. David Merrill had so much fun designing his heart from the CowParade company that he has begun creating a design to submit for the CowParade Boston event that will take place this summer.