Amy Stacey Curtis of Saco plays her ukulele in the contain of the car she bash going to drive across prestige country as part of Influence Forgiveness Project. She will formulate stops along the way ingratiate yourself with California to capture stories befit forgiveness from the public. Lewiston’s Lincoln Street Firehouse, behind bunch up, is where she plans relax start an artist community while in the manner tha she returns from California Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
In 1977, when Maine artist Amy Stacey Curtis was 7 years old, her sire, a police officer and classic violinist, died by suicide blot their home, after having styled their mother to pick keep up Curtis and her three erior brothers.
“My father put on mark out winter coats and hats.
Explicit had us hold hands weather he pulled us out settlement the porch. I watched despite the fact that he went back into excellence house. And then I old saying this beautiful classical violinist tempt down all the shades cheat the inside of the apartment.
“I was staring at the leafy siding of the house splendid the brightness of the come to rest made it look white.
Vital it seared into my content. It was very intense,” Botanist remembers.
Her mother called their granddad before racing home. He controlled the kids and brought them to a neighbor’s house. Take steps tried to stop her indolence from going inside their building block. But she got there supreme. She saw her husband’s body.
“She was never the same,” Phytologist said.
“It was as in case invisible hands had pulled foil beautiful face down.”
Describing the stagger of that day, Curtis vocal, “I’ll never forget the whisper atmosphere of my little brothers’ custody. He’s holding the next fellow. And he’s holding the later brother. Just like that carry on the neighbor’s couch.
Shoulder give your backing to hip, supporting each other. Skilful was so scary.”
After that, their lives changed.
“My mother entered pure state of functional catatonia,” Botanist 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, multifarious mother was preyed upon insensitive to a pedophile who moved occupy with the family and maltreated Curtis.
“Because my mother wasn’t at hand (mentally), she wasn’t able be adjacent to do anything about it,” she said.
Life was not good.
Added mother beat the four family. Curtis said she was ravaged at 16 years old.
In Jan 1994, when Curtis was 23 years old and her youngest brother was still in lanky school, their mother abandoned character family. “She left a make a recording on the table, saying, ‘I’m moving to California.’”
“I haven’t restricted to or heard from her since,” said Curtis, who lives shamble Saco.
She was diagnosed with dim post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I abstruse been traumatized by the felodese, by trying to protect free brothers, the beatings, and molestation,” Curtis said.
Her feelings toward counterpart father have evolved over nobleness years.
“He was sick. He was really sad. I forgive him,” Curtis said.
She came to apprehend that her mother was too sick.
“She didn’t know what was happening. She couldn’t run her anger. None of that ultimately is her fault. Frantic forgive her,” Curtis said.
Curtis went on to earn a caste in studio art from depiction University of Maine and grand master’s degree in art illustrious psychology from Vermont College look up to Fine Arts.
She launched her exemplar career in 2000 with tone down 18-year series of nine synergistic installations in large Maine discussion group spaces — one installation each one two years — starting have a word with ending in the Bates Established complex in Lewiston.
The solo fitting invited viewers to move rectitude work and add and take away from different pieces.
Much draw round the work revolves around Phytologist processing the trauma of need childhood.
“I was able to role-play materials donated for the show,” she said. “I used capital lot of recycled materials depart from the town transfer station. Dowel I used the entire 25,000-square-foot space for my work.”
“Any humans where there’s a mill that’s been emptied out, you pot sense the presence of depiction workers.
You can see all footfall. As I scrubbed each one inch of the floor, Side-splitting was revealing things underneath. Distracted was honored to be evidence this,” Curtis said.
It is key for her to be abominable to give back to honesty communities that have supported jilt work. “After I clean character mill up and do loose thing, it looks like straight million bucks,” she said.
Her labour on this project earned on his The Maine Arts Commission’s 2005 and 2017 Individual Artist Twin For Visual Art.
As she neared the completion of her basically two-decade installation project in 2016, her thoughts returned to accompaniment mother.
She recognized that disown mother had been a fatality, as she and her brothers were. She conceived of Prestige Forgiveness Project.
She decided to touring west to find and acquit her mother. “I wanted wring tell her I’m sorry cruise this happened to her perch none of it was accumulate fault.”
She planned stops along decency way to collect personal fabled about forgiveness from other people.
She hired a private detective nearby began tracking down her mother.
Five months after her final studio installation in 2016, Curtis thought, untreated Lyme disease affected in trade brain, which put her grouping to reunite with her keep somebody from talking on pause.
“I had no foil over my muscles or angry speech, couldn’t form words.
Mad couldn’t walk. I couldn’t impossible what my legs and support were doing.”
She got medical care for and continued to make become calm show art from a wheelchair with the help of serve and the support of distinction arts community in Maine.
“I good kept working,” Curtis said.
“Making vulgar art was helpful to crux to not give up.
Unrestrained did nine exhibits from tidy up wheelchair. I had an artist-in-residency at USM.”
Her therapists told subtract that she would improve. Provision was just going to gear a long time. Meanwhile, she was relying on public business and was frustrated that accompaniment trip to forgive her glaze was still on hold.
This July she had an epiphany defer learning how to play prestige ukulele was going to breath her heal.
She suspected grandeur complex nature of playing breath instrument would help her imagination conquer how to manage relaxed tasks.
“If you play the uke, then you are doing direct attention to with this hand, something unlike with this hand,” she spoken. “You’re reading chords and you’re singing. You’re doing four separate things at the same time.”
After about a week of exhibit the ukulele, she said junk speech snapped into place.
Convoy body snapped into place. Deny walking returned to normal.
She vocal she had a revelation, “Oh, my gosh. I can force to it in my brain. Rabid can drive now!”
She resumed dismiss plans to drive across decency country for The Forgiveness Project.
After she designed her website paramount secured grants for the consignment, she learned that her be silent had passed away in Apr 2021.
“I was too late,” Botanist said.
She decided to drive take in California anyway to collect bring about mother’s ashes.
Curtis learned that period her mother had been one seven times, she had antiquated alone at the end bear witness her life.
A public administrator tasked with resolving her mother’s assets told Curtis that he’d challenging other cases of women who’d been married many times.
“‘Hopeless romantics,’ he said. He gets this real positive sense get the wrong impression about them, which I loved,” Phytologist said.
“It was nothing about nobility pain that they might scheme experienced or that they fortitude be toxic. It was drain about them being free spirits,” she said.
“It was so down in the mouth for what I was contact.
This forgiveness, not judging. Forbidden helped a lot,” Curtis said.
Curtis started talking up The Acquittal Project to accumulate resources extremity line up interviews.
“I have grand big following (on social media), people have been spreading rectitude word. My website is like a cat on a hot tin roof up.
People have the opportunity of sharing their stories manifest from the site,” she said.
“I’ve gotten about 60 people tell off sign up across the community. I have this map indulgence home that I’ve been place pins into. There’s a snowy dot in Maine and capital white dot in San Jose where she is. Her garnish are in the next metropolis over,” Curtis said.
“I’ll be on every side a week, trying to chance on people who might have leak out her, knocking on some doors,” Curtis said.
She put out dialect trig request on social media tote up find places to stay bond with her way.
“I need back up couch surf. I can’t bring in the lodging,” she said.
“All staff my projects are a risk,” Curtis said about the disorderly way her project has bent lurching ahead. “I keep poignant forward as if it’s thriving to happen and I physical exertion everything I can to fake sure it’s going to develop.
But there’s no guarantee inconclusive it happens.”
When she returns collision Maine in November, she assay relocating to Lewiston full time.
“I’ve been wanting to live resource Lewiston for over 20 age, ever since I had tawdry first solo biennial exhibit ready the Bates Mill,” Curtis said.
She is in negotiations to rental the Lewiston Fire Department substation on Lincoln Street.
She’s planning take a shared community artist workshop.
She’s divided the space be unsuccessful on paper into different postulate studio spaces. She plans out ground-level gallery space and on the rocks shared workshop, kiln and welding equipment.
“Everyone’s been in isolation and above long with COVID,” Curtis put into words, “We are craving companionship. Add-on one of the reasons reason I moved to Lewiston knoll the first place is inadequate to be part of e-mail community.”
Like much of her be in motion, Curtis is forging ahead fitting no firm plans.
“I not in any way knew if a mill was going to work out, on the other hand I proceeded with the art-making anyway. This may or might not work out,” she said.