NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Artist Kent Mikalsen hopes to find a new home for his artwork where they can be viewed by a majority of individuals and enhance the viability of the community or business. 

 

"It's been found that public art in the community actually enhances the viability of the community as far as bringing in new business … because they want to see that the municipality…has the consciousness around culture. Because when people come in with their families, they want to know that the town they're coming into has a level of culture that they can enjoy," he said recently. 

 

"Since I'm starting from scratch, I'm recreating my whole list of possible curators and patrons and that sort of thing. And it's a lot of work. So, these open studios are kind of like inaugurating my second career, my second time out."

 

In 2004, he had to vacate his sculpture studio in the Eclipse Mill. With no place to sculpt, he put his tools and sculptures in storage and walked away and became a painter. 

 

For 15 years, the sculptures sat unseen by the world until 2019, when he returned to sculpting.

 

"Fifteen years they sat in storage. It pained me every time I thought about it. So I don't want them here. I want them out in the world, they've grown up now. They can go out, earn a living. So now, I want them out and I want my career to start. And I'm always thinking to the next series," he said.

 

The sculptures now sit with Mikalsen in the new studio space, located in the Hoosac Mill at 234 Union St., looking for a place they can finally call home. A space where they can be admired by many. 

 

Mikalsen is trying to rework these pieces made in his old studio to fit the new space and is experimenting with both his older and newer works illuminating them with his experience painting. 

 

He lived in a spiritual community, a yoga ashram, for 10 years where he studied yoga, meditation, and transformational practices to live life in a very caring way. His experiences during this time have a profound effect on his work. 

 

"When I'm working in my studio everything else is somewhere else. I'm focused and it's profound meditation. So the more meditating I do, the deeper I get into my own being," Mikalsen said.

 

"Who I am. Not this physical body, or even my mind but something that stands beside all that or in addition to all that or separate from all that, and that's where you go with meditation. That's what meditation does. It helps you see your deeper self, your other self, but more real to me."

 

Most of his work is about going to that ethereal place. The heavy sculptures represent something that doesn't exist in physicality, creating a dialogue of opposites, he said. 

 

The artist grew up in New York City and earned his master of fine arts from the University of Florida. He's worked in wood but his newer pieces are in metals or polymers for outdoor installation. His next series is inspired by natural and botanical forms he's been drawing for some time. 

 

Mikalsen hopes that his sculptures create an "experience of themselves — peace, quiet, and contemplation in the space they occupy whether it is a building or courtyard."

 

Mikalsen has no interest in creating conceptual art. Conceptual art is more about the concept that a piece represents in an effort to make you think, rather than the piece itself, he believes. His works are suppose to stand alone and be beautiful. 

 

"For me, beauty is big and it's kind of like a dirty word, has been for years in the art scene … But beauty has its place in fine art. And then people change their concept of beauty. And I think that is what art is about,  to take your concept of beauty and move it forward," he said.

 

Art adds value to the properties and the community, he said. His pieces range in price between $3,500 and $7,500.

 

Studio tours are available by appointment and by Zoom by contacting Mikalsen at 413-652-4801 or kentmikalsen@gmail.com.