Margaret Cohen
Alice Lemire
Frank Lemire
Margaret Cohen is a Distinguished Pastelist with the Pastel Society of New Jersey and a juried Associate Member of the Pastel Society of America. Landscapes are her preferred genre, especially tree forms and skies. She has also participated in two local public art projects--an Adirondack chair for the Downtown Alliance and the Shutters project for Transformations Gallery.
Alice Lemire is a textile artist with experience in design, form, and function. Her weavings include linens, clothing, blankets, metal trays and soft sculptures. Other art forms include quilting, needlepoint, coiled baskets, and appliqued room screens. Alice attended the Boston University’s Program in Artisanry where she specialized in Textile Arts.
Frank Lemire is a retired Construction Manager of landmark and old buildings, including the Ballentine House at the Newark Museum and the Morristown Library. He is currently a woodworking craftsman with experience making tables and other home furnishings.
Why we got involved:
Margaret and Alice thought it would be fun to work together on a creative project over the summer. Frank became interested in joining us because of the challenges to his technical expertise. We all wanted to make something for the community and especially the Greenway, as we each enjoy using it.
What it means to us:
The Greenway allows visitors to appreciate the natural world in an urban setting. We were thinking of the interdependent relationship between people and nature. For some, it’s a path to routine exercise though walking, riding bikes, or walking dogs. Others experience the zen of listening to the birds, watching the squirrels and ducks, or seeing the seasons change—a contrast to the stonework of the overpasses, wooden steps, and geometric steelwork of the Route 1 overpass. To convey this interconnectedness, we used two signs of the same shape and size with designs of people and nature that are the inverse of each other, with aluminum cut-outs to suggest either people or nature superimposed. Mounted on two separate poles back to back, the art is designed for people to walk around. We added another dimension by including the Greenway Haiku mounted on a third pole, backed by scraps from our signs, in the spirit of recycling.
