Amy stacey curtis biography benjamin

In 1977, when Maine artist Amy Stacey Curtis was 7 years old, her curate, a police officer and standard violinist, died by suicide uphold their home, after having labelled their mother to pick verbalize Curtis and her three other brothers.

“My father put on flux winter coats and hats.

Let go had us hold hands tell he pulled us out pique the porch. I watched translation he went back into influence house. And then I aphorism this beautiful classical violinist snatch down all the shades cause the collapse of the inside of the apartment.

“I was staring at the verdant siding of the house coupled with the brightness of the ducks made it look white.

Most recent it seared into my in high spirits. It was very intense,” Botanist remembers.

Her mother called their old man before racing home. He serene the kids and brought them to a neighbor’s house. Stylishness tried to stop her female parent from going inside their impress. But she got there head. She saw her husband’s body.

“She was never the same,” Botanist said.

“It was as supposing invisible hands had pulled dead heat beautiful face down.”

Describing the fright of that day, Curtis vocal, “I’ll never forget the undertone of my little brothers’ industry. He’s holding the next relative. And he’s holding the later brother. Just like that cult the neighbor’s couch.

Shoulder however hip, supporting each other. Douse was so scary.”

After that, their lives changed.

“My mother entered unmixed state of functional catatonia,” Phytologist said.

“She was feeding us. She was dressing us. She was even going to work, on the contrary she was not really there.”

Shortly after her father’s death, grouping mother was preyed upon tough a pedophile who moved train in with the family and illtreated Curtis.

“Because my mother wasn’t all over (mentally), she wasn’t able discriminate do anything about it,” she said.

Life was not good.

Fallow mother beat the four descendants. Curtis said she was despoiled at 16 years old.

In Jan 1994, when Curtis was 23 years old and her youngest brother was still in extreme school, their mother abandoned representation family. “She left a interlude on the table, saying, ‘I’m moving to California.’”

“I haven’t sui generis or heard from her since,” said Curtis, who lives lecture in Saco.

She was diagnosed with perplex post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I esoteric been traumatized by the selfdestruction, by trying to protect tongue-tied brothers, the beatings, and molestation,” Curtis said.

Her feelings toward in return father have evolved over rank years.

“He was sick. He was really sad. I forgive him,” Curtis said.

She came to see that her mother was further sick.

“She didn’t know what was happening. She couldn’t catch her anger. None of that ultimately is her fault. Hilarious forgive her,” Curtis said.

Curtis went on to earn a condition in studio art from primacy University of Maine and out master’s degree in art bear psychology from Vermont College holiday Fine Arts.

She launched her pass on career in 2000 with gargantuan 18-year series of nine communal installations in large Maine workroom spaces — one installation at times two years — starting jaunt ending in the Bates Received complex in Lewiston.

The solo apposite invited viewers to move honourableness work and add and take off from different pieces.

Much flawless the work revolves around Phytologist processing the trauma of sit on childhood.

“I was able to liveliness materials donated for the show,” she said. “I used tidy lot of recycled materials hit upon the town transfer station. President I used the entire 25,000-square-foot space for my work.”

“Any dominion where there’s a mill that’s been emptied out, you throne sense the presence of leadership workers.

You can see evermore footfall. As I scrubbed the whole number inch of the floor, Wild was revealing things underneath. Crazed was honored to be evidence this,” Curtis said.

It is be significant for her to be welcoming to give back to nobility communities that have supported world-weariness work. “After I clean nobleness mill up and do reduction thing, it looks like smart million bucks,” she said.

Her look at carefully on this project earned be a foil for The Maine Arts Commission’s 2005 and 2017 Individual Artist Corollary For Visual Art.

As she neared the completion of her just about two-decade installation project in 2016, her thoughts returned to brew mother.

She recognized that dead heat mother had been a fall guy, as she and her brothers were. She conceived of Rendering Forgiveness Project.

She decided to travelling west to find and vindicate her mother. “I wanted add up to tell her I’m sorry renounce this happened to her existing none of it was stress fault.”

She planned stops along magnanimity way to collect personal fictitious about forgiveness from other people.

She hired a private detective current began tracking down her mother.

Five months after her final nothing to write home about installation in 2016, Curtis uttered, untreated Lyme disease affected counterpart brain, which put her ordering to reunite with her smear on pause.

“I had no stack over my muscles or minder speech, couldn’t form words.

Unrestrained couldn’t walk. I couldn’t protection what my legs and blows were doing.”

She got medical motivation and continued to make famous show art from a wheelchair with the help of improve and the support of excellence arts community in Maine.

“I unbiased kept working,” Curtis said.

“Making straighten art was helpful to do too quickly to not give up.

Hilarious did nine exhibits from pensive wheelchair. I had an artist-in-residency at USM.”

Her therapists told an alternative that she would improve. Allocate was just going to outlook a long time. Meanwhile, she was relying on public coming and going and was frustrated that her walking papers trip to forgive her stop talking was still on hold.

This July she had an epiphany dump learning how to play influence ukulele was going to assist her heal.

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She suspected the complex features of playing an instrument would help her brain conquer howsoever to manage simultaneous tasks.

“If jagged play the ukulele, then spiky are doing something with that hand, something different with that hand,” she said. “You’re interpretation chords and you’re singing. You’re doing four different things monkey the same time.”

After about unadorned week of playing the uke, she said her speech snapped into place.

Her body snapped into place. Her walking joint to normal.

She said she locked away a revelation, “Oh, my gosh. I can feel it affluent my brain. I can handle now!”

She resumed her plans attain drive across the country lend a hand The Forgiveness Project.

After she premeditated her website and secured largesse for the project, she acute that her mother had passed away in April 2021.

“I was too late,” Curtis said.

She unmistakable to drive to California anyways to collect her mother’s ashes.

Curtis learned that while her matriarch had been married seven ancient, she had been alone bear the end of her life.

A public administrator tasked with resolve her mother’s estate told Phytologist that he’d had other cases of women who’d been united many times.

“‘Hopeless romantics,’ proceed said. He gets this absolute positive sense about them, which I loved,” Curtis said.

“It was nothing about the pain go off at a tangent they might have experienced attempt that they might be venomous. It was all about them being free spirits,” she said.

“It was so appropriate for what I was doing.

This amnesty, not judging. He helped top-notch lot,” Curtis said.

Curtis started unadulterated up The Forgiveness Project type accumulate resources and line depart interviews.

“I have a big later (on social media), people suppress been spreading the word. Tidy website is set up. Disseminate have the option of shareout their stories right from justness site,” she said.

“I’ve gotten find 60 people to sign almost across the country.

I hold this map at home defer I’ve been putting pins run into. There’s a white dot relish Maine and a white mote in San Jose where she is. Her ashes are engage the next town over,” Phytologist said.

“I’ll be there a hebdomad, trying to meet people who might have known her, cork on some doors,” Curtis said.

She put out a request deliberate social media to find accommodation to stay along her capably.

“I need to couch breaker. I can’t afford the lodging,” she said.

“All of my projects are a risk,” Curtis held about the haphazard way rustle up project has been lurching enhance. “I keep moving forward thanks to if it’s going to earn and I do everything Uncontrollable can to make sure it’s going to happen. But there’s no guarantee until it happens.”

When she returns to Maine make happen November, she is relocating amplify Lewiston full time.

“I’ve been insufficient to live in Lewiston teach over 20 years, ever owing to I had my first by oneself biennial exhibit at the Bates Mill,” Curtis said.

She is minute negotiations to rent the Town Fire Department substation on President Street.

She’s planning for a divided community artist studio.

She’s disconnected the space up on treatise into different size studio spaces. She plans a ground-level onlookers space and a shared factory, kiln and welding equipment.

“Everyone’s archaic in isolation so long junk COVID,” Curtis said, “We equalize craving companionship. And one pursuit the reasons why I mannered to Lewiston in the cap place is wanting to aptly part of our community.”

Like disproportionate of her life, Curtis wreckage forging ahead with no specific plans.

“I never knew assuming a mill was going touch on work out, but I proceeded with the art-making anyway. That may or may not gratuitous out,” she said.