Concrete Distinction: An Interview with Artist Marybeth Lensel

In 2003, artist Marybeth Lensel created Concrete Distinction, a site-specific installation on the grounds here at Heritage. Longtime visitors may remember seeing it while walking the trails behind the Arbor Bowl. When I first joined the staff, I would walk the trails to get to know the grounds better. I remember happening upon it and feeling like I had discovered some kind of magical hobbit world. It was a quiet, peaceful moment that took me out of myself. The piece became one of my favorite hidden spots at Heritage.

In the twenty years since Concrete Distinction was originally installed, Mother Nature continued to do her thing and the forest changed quite a bit—to the point that the entire installation was barely visible. I was delighted when Marybeth contacted me out of the blue last summer to inquire about the piece. She had stopped by and seen how overgrown it had become and was interested in reviving it. We met with folks from Heritage’s Horticulture and Facilities team and came up with a plan to move the sculpture to a new site. Located at the foot of some very large evergreen trees, we hope the new site will not get quite so overgrown.

Unlike the temporary exhibitions of outdoor art that we currently show, this sculpture is part of Heritage’s collection. For any and all objects in our collection, we are committed to caring for and maintaining it.

The challenge is that while the pieces of the sculpture may not be monumental in size, they are significant in number, with 5,000 small concrete pieces needing to be moved by hand. To tackle the task, we have invited a crew of volunteer art students from Sandwich High School to help. For the students, it is a chance to get out of the classroom and meet a professional artist, and assist in an artwork installation. For the artist and for me, as a curator, it is a chance to connect with community, talk art, and get our hands dirty digging in the dirt. For so many of us, that is the magical part of the creation process: putting your work out into the world and seeing how the world engages with it. That moment when you share it with the world—that’s the best part!

In preparation for the reinstallation, I chatted with Marybeth about the piece and about her work. Here are some excerpts from that conversation.

Can you tell me a little bit about the genesis for the idea of Concrete Distinction?

Cities excite me with all of their structures and design elements. At the time, I had been living in Boston and then moved to Hampton Beach for the off-season. The contrast in landscape, population and natural versus artificial elements was extreme. Through the fall and beginning of winter I became acutely aware of the differences of city versus seasonal destination or rural areas. My proposal was based around the idea of bringing the city into a rural setting where it would live amongst the natural elements and be a stark difference within the gardens.

I’m interested in the craft required to create this piece—that you sewed the 5,000 fabric bags needed to create your concrete forms. Can you tell me about the craftsmanship part of your process? Is the ‘making with your hands’ part important for you or is it more like ‘I’ll do what needs to be done to make the piece’?

The making is an important element to all of my work. All of the learning and accidents along the way keep the concept and work itself fresh. Figuring out the best way to produce the work in a streamlined fashion was challenging. I started searching for fabric in January at Salvation Army stores, thrift stores, and Jo Ann Fabric clearance bins – cotton fabric only! It was the best for allowing the concrete to cure and then peel away. I spent the month of February and some of March cutting, drawing and sewing the fabric into pockets that would be the molds. This time in Hampton was strange for me as I worked and lived through a condo renovation, a desolate landscape and a dark quiet winter. Having this project was a life saver in keeping me busy and focused on what was to come in the spring. In early April, it took my mother, boyfriend and I ten days straight to cast the 5,000 pieces. My father had a trucking company then, and my two brothers drove the forms from central Massachusetts to Heritage. Nine of us peeled away the fabric and placed the forms on the original hillside. It took all day.

How are you feeling about revisiting this piece twenty years later?

I am very excited to revisit Concrete Distinction after so much time has passed! My sister lives on Cape Cod and last spring I was passing Heritage with my husband and two children after a visit. I had an overwhelming urge to show my family the piece from a different lifetime. Seeing the work so many years later sparked a deep desire to revive it. To be given the opportunity to place the work in a new setting is so fitting. The new location is a kind of protective space surrounded by rhododendrons, bushes and majestic old trees. It is still work that will be both a destination point but also a piece which may be happened upon by visitors.

The piece is also giving me a kind of refresh. I am able to look back and understand so much more of my past artistic work and now have the time and experience to build upon it. I am also really proud to see how well the individual pieces have held up. The time taken on each piece was well worth it.

What are some recent projects that you’ve been working on?

My most recent work has been painting and mixed media work which can be found on my website. I have also just finished illustrating my fourth children’s book for a local author. As an artist working in many mediums, I feel a sense of non-constricting freedom to constantly produce work. Along with painting and drawing, I enjoy printmaking, more specifically Linoleum cut printing. I use this medium to produce and sell lunar calendars in the fall for the upcoming year. I am always the document photographer as well as the on-call designer for many side projects. Art is a part of my daily life.

Can you tell us a little bit of your story and how you became an artist?

From a very early age, I knew I was an artist. The Worcester Art Museum helped shape my core education and later I attended Montserrat College of Art. I graduated a sculptress with a second concentration in photography. For a couple of years I lived in and around Boston and NH, applying and showing work in the area. I then traveled quite a bit, nationally and internationally, working as a designer and a sculptress, doing large-scale projects for Disney and Universal Studios, selling my work at Renegade Fairs and on Etsy—all kinds of things! Once my husband and I started a family, we moved back to Massachusetts to be around cousins and family. Currently, I teach and am very involved in my children’s schools and activities. My public art career was put on a back burner due to choices I have made as a mother. Now that my kids are getting older I do feel a loosening of their needs and am looking forward to getting back into creating site specific work again.

Anything else you’d like to share?

This piece was judged solely on the artwork proposed and not by my name and my past experience. At the time, my resume was not very long and this was my first site specific piece to be awarded a stipend. Being judged by the work is so important to me. That the idea was put on the pedestal, not my name, experience or who I do or do not know. I believe this form of judging art is key to keeping the art world fresh.

When Heritage opens for the season in April, I invite you to wander down to the back of the Arbor Bowl to see Concrete Distinction (version II!). Special thanks to students from the Sandwich High School Visual Arts program who helped to relocate this incredible piece. See the timelapse video below of their hard work.