It's a cool, gray, winter Saturday at the
Indian Orchard Mills and the sounds of
drills, miter saws, and hammers permeate the
air of the artwork space occupied by Maxwell
Parker. This isn't really an uncommon sight
on the weekend, since Parker has a regular 9
to 5 job during the week, making this some
of the only time for him to tap into his
unique creative side.
What is uncommon, however, is that Ellen
Pollock, the artist who with whom he shares
have this space, is here as well.
Normally, these two have more of a two ships
passing in the night kind of working
relationship, and it's a relationship born
out of financial convenience for both of
them.
I share my space to share expenses.
That's basically the whole thing and, you
know, Max, Max is great -- It's just turned
out that we haven't been here at the same
time, so we always have our space to
ourselves.
Each represents two entirely different
spectrums of the art world.
Pollock is more established and has a more
traditional approach, while Parker is still
relatively new, particularly in this
building. And his sculpting style leans
heavily on the experimental side.
What I'm doing is I'm making a driving
simulator that deals with kind of what you
would feel like driving down the road with
some person behind you with their brights on
and stuff like that, and that whole
overwhelming experience and like trying to
like deal with, you know, keep driving
forward and being like, safe, I guess.
But like with all these other things going
on.
It's art that might be described as perfectly
imperfect. It's not made of the finest
materials or even cut exactly right.
There's a certain funhouse feel to it, and
that's exactly what he's going for.
I love having fun with things.
So like, I wanted to kind of, like, exude
that and have people see what I see in my
things that I make. And I guess when I was
little, they would be like little science
experiments that I would create, like
pulling stuff out of the trash, putting it
together, like making like little robots out
of -- nonfunctional robots, out of, like,
remote control cars.
So, like, I kind of want to, like, recreate
that here and, like, allow the space for
people to play.
If Ellen Pollock's work is considered
traditional, it's only due to the fact that
it doesn't require power tools to put
together. The styles that comprise her body
of work are quite expansive.
I'm focusing on abstracts a little bit.
I also do something called process painting,
which is when you, you know, tack a piece
of paper up on the wall, grab some poster
paints, and start painting without any
preconceptions and not looking at anything.
So, you're not doing reality.
It can end up being abstract.
It can end up being just some fantasy thing.
But my goals in art is to express my
feelings. Either my feelings at the moment
or my impressions of whatever I'm painting.
This studio is the first shared space that we
visited during our time at the Indian
Orchard Mills, and finding it was part of
the adventure. From the outside, these
buildings can be a bit intimidating for
first timers here.
It may seem obvious, but something as simple
as these decorative numbers by the doors
really made it a lot easier to navigate.
What's been neat about this experience is
that we've gotten a chance to kind of
explore these old mill buildings.
The last time we visited, we were upstairs
here on the third floor.
Before that, we stopped over at the back
building through door seven.
This time around, we're taking a look at
some studio space here on the second floor
by way of door 19.
And it's about half way down this long
corridor that we find the studio shared by
Ellen Pollock and Maxwell Parker.
Neither of whom would be considered cagey
veterans of this complex.
Pollock having been here for just a few
years and Parker just a few months.
But regardless of the length of their
tenure, each is enjoying making their mark
here.
These old mill buildings just, like, kind of
give you the freedom to not worry about,
like, screwing anything up too, you know,
like it's already been used for a purpose
and now it has a new life and like, you're
breathing like whatever you're doing into
it.
I love the old mill buildings.
I just think a lot of them are falling
apart and I really personally have a real
love for them. But as far as this one goes,
it has a history of housing, an artist
community, and it's just a great place to
be.