Mulberry Cultural Center exhibition explores art off the canvas

MULBERRY, Fla. - A new Mulberry Cultural Center exhibition called "Surface Tension," explores the use of non-traditional materials in art. 

"I love names and playing with words, and when we were thinking about this exhibit and going off canvas and what that meant and how the surfaces were going to be really challenging to work with, it just naturally led into the idea that the tension of creation was going to come from the actual surface you were creating on," City of Mulberry Director of Culture & Programming Chelsea Young said. 

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Young and a handful of local artists helped think of the idea. In addition to local artists, the show features art from Manhattan, Atlanta and Nashville. 

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Husband and wife Larry and Kathy Barsotti are featured in the show with "Thunderbird" and "Rising." Larry Barsotti's piece is a constructed animal head that features real horns. He painted a thunderhead on the head. 

"It was just a piece that came together from different things, kind of hiding it around the house," he said. "That's how I work, it's there, it's there, it's there."

Kathy Barsotti's piece is a love letter to Native American culture. It features century-old barnwood, a mannequin and pieces of a cow-skin rug. 

"We have everything from Native American history," she said. "World War II communications, and then there's sand on the bottom, and that's where it's rising up from the earth."

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What they're saying:

Young loved watching the diverse pieces come in as the exhibition took shape. 

"I think the number one thing that visitors should get when they come to this is that art doesn't have to be defined by what you think it needs to be. You can create literally anything. It might be junk you have in the back of your car. It might be something that's been sitting in front of you the entire time, and you've just never quite seen it in the way that it could be turned into something wonderful," Young said. 

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Larry Barsotti hopes the work in the show inspires others. 

"You look at it, and you see all these different pieces and all the different things going on, and you just wonder, can I do that?" he said. "You would hope that people that were coming in would say the same thing. You want them to get that feeling of I can create something."