Through paintings, poetry and photography, the stories of 12 sites throughout Northeast Ohio come to life, all of which were formerly inhabited by humans and are now being taken back by nature.
While participating in a workshop at Akron’s Summit Artspace in 2023, three area artists discovered a mutual interest in exploring themes of nature in their work. Over the course of the following year, painter Dee Fairweather, writer Theresa Göttl Brightman and photographer Mary Defer came together through different mediums for “Ohio Reclaimed: What Once Was,” on view at Summit Artspace until Dec. 14.
“I thought it would be the perfect way to really bring something different into this space that’s a little more immersive,” said Fairweather, who discovered oil painting several years ago as a way to relieve stress.
Through research and a few planning sessions, the group began to narrow down a list of sites to highlight for the exhibition.
“The list kind of grew and expanded during the process,” Brightman said. “But there were some places, once we looked into them, ‘Well, maybe this isn’t really accessible,’ or ‘Maybe this isn’t legal to get to anymore.’”
Specific themes for the exhibition didn’t emerge until the artists visited the sites in person.
“Hopelessness was what I expected, and I think with some of the sites, there was a little bit of that in seeing how formerly beautiful places had decayed so much,” Brightman said. “But I feel like hope was a more prominent theme that nature always comes back. The world does repair itself when we let it or sometimes when we help it.”
Defer, who works by day at Ideastream Public Media, said she was drawn to the history of each location they selected, including several tied to Ohio’s industrial past.
For instance, Lock 28 in Peninsula, part of the Ohio & Erie Canal, was a major transportation system throughout the early to mid-1800s. Also known as Deep Lock, it was the deepest in the canal system at 17 feet and is now part of Summit Metro Parks in Peninsula.
“The way nature affects these places, once times change and processes differ … some of the spaces are now parks,” Defer said. “Thinking about that facet and the way this space that was commercialized previously can be a place of introspection and peace, it’s this very lovely natural site now.”
The stone to build the canal came from the quarry just steps away, another location featured in the exhibit. Sandstone from the quarry was used to build other canals and structures and was even harvested to create millstones for the Quaker Oats company.
Like Lock 28 and the stone quarry, several other locations in the exhibition also stand as reminders of how the needs of society have changed over time. The former Jaite Paper Mill is now part of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Molly Stark Sanitorium, formerly a tuberculosis hospital serving Stark County in the 1930-1940s, was once a beautiful example of Spanish Revival architecture.
“Evolution doesn’t always have to necessarily move things forward and make them more manmade,” Fairweather said. “To me, it’s more of an evolution of how these spaces and how Mother Nature really evolves to meet the needs of humans, of animals, really of everything.”
