You can't drive by Lake Mauweehoo on Route 37 in Sherman without noticing Mimi Nelson's home. Or more precisely, without noticing the colorful metal sculptures that decorate her lakeside cottage property.

But just driving by provides only a glimpse of the sculptures. It isn't until you stop and see the full complement of her work - up-close and against the backdrop of the lake - that you truly appreciate the beauty and the sense of flair they bring to her country home.

"I didn't always work in metal," she explained in a recent interview. "I started out about 20 years ago carving stone. But I shifted to metal because I liked the freedom to create with color and different sizes and shapes."

As the sculptures on her property clearly show, she favors brilliant reds and purples for color - "for the contrast they provide against the ground and water" - and fluid shapes such as spirals, circles and wave-like designs that emphasize grace and continuity.

the appeal of the abstract

People who admire her work often say they can see a concrete image or object in her sculpture. But Mimi insists her goal is to create a feeling with her art and not a specific 'thing.'

"It may be that placing the sculptures next to the water helps people see waves or birds," she continued. "But I just try to create lines and images that are pleasing to look at and embody concepts such as motion or lightness."

Mimi, now 82, was not always an artist. Indeed, the native New Yorker came to art rather late in life, even though she harbored a "desire to sculpt for years." She finally gave into the urge when she decided to close her office one day a week - she worked as a psychotherapist - and use the time to sculpt. "Soon, I couldn't stop," she said. "It was almost a compulsion and was a much needed release from the pressures of work."

"I've always enjoyed art, especially the many opportunities I've had to visit museums and galleries over the years," she continued. "So even without any formal art training, I knew that once I decided to try my hand I was confident I would stick with it, even if the precise methods and mediums might change over time."

There have been some necessary detours along the way, too. Her full-time career kept art a part-time activity for several years. There was also the need to provide care for her husband, George, who became ill and has since passed away. They were married for 20 years. It was a second marriage for both.

More recently, her time was devoted to renovating her cottage on Lake Mauweehoo. The property provides more outdoor space to showcase her art than her previous home on Hubbell Mountain Road, which is also in Sherman. But it needed extensive remodeling and upgrading. "I think I've rebuilt just about everything in this house except for the living room floor," she said as she crossed her fingers for luck.

surrounded by art

Now, collecting and creating art is her full-time passion. Dozens of her earlier efforts in stone and metal decorate the interior of her home, as do her many paintings and other pieces of art that she has collected over the years.

Her enthusiasm for art is unchecked. Ask her a question, such as how she goes about creating her metal sculptures, and the reserved demeanor of a professional therapist quickly fades into the joy you might expect from a child pondering the possibilities of a new box of crayons or a jar of Play-Doh.

"I never start with just a single design in mind," she explained. "Usually, I create several small objects from separate pieces of sheet metal. Over time I discard the designs that I don't like and incorporate features from the ones that I do like into a composite design."

"It's really a building process where I start with something small and keep adding to it until I'm satisfied." Plus, nothing is wasted. The discarded designs and features are remembered and often reemerge in future sculptures.

Mimi uses simple materials for her initial designs, usually disposable cooking pans, which she cuts with a pair of kitchen scissors. She then manipulates the metal, bending it, cutting it and twisting it until it resembles the desired shape. She examines the piece from all sides as she goes about her daily life, adding a small tweak here and there, all to make sure it is pleasing to view from all angles. The whole process can take from several days to many weeks.

The initial desktop designs are no more than a few inches in size, but the eventual sculptures will exceed several feet when fabricated. So, to make sure she has the final proportions just right, she cuts out pictures of people from magazines and places them next the mini-sculptures to help her determine the best size for the final product.

Once satisfied with both the design and its dimensions, she takes the mini-sculpture to a metal fabricator in Bethany where the final sculpture is produced and painted.

"Occasionally, I create a design that is very complicated to fabricate," she pointed out, "and we may have to make adjustments in production." After all, it is one thing to create a spiral out of a thin metal sheet; it is quite another to create the same shape with a 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch sheet of steel.

Once the metal sculpture is finished, it is trucked and installed on her property. Or, if the piece has been created on commission, it is shipped directly to her client for installation. Most of her work is for her own enjoyment. However, a few pieces have been sold to private collectors and businesses.

Mimi is gratified that people like her work enough to want to buy it, especially since the steel and shop labor she relies on can be expensive for a retired person on a limited income.

But her art is really an expression of herself and her life. She can see a piece and recall what she was thinking and feeling while she created it, even what events - like the birth of a grandchild - were occurring at the time. So her sculptures also serve as an over-sized scrapbook.

As for the future, Mimi knows that her property is limited in size and can only accommodate about another half dozen or so pieces. But she wants to keep active and hopes to continue creating art for others to enjoy.

By George Linkletter