Pastry Hideaway Brings Art Into the Open with Art Show

With delicious breads, baked goods and lunch, the Pastry Hideaway may be Wilton’s tastiest secret that’s worth getting the word out about. Now, chef Pamela Graham has added something new to the menu–art!

She has adorned the café walls with the works of two local artists, Dot Bergen and Diane Pollack, and will have the exhibit up through the holidays. Patry Hideaway is hosting an opening “evening of arts and edibles” on Thursday, Nov. 16, 6-8 p.m..

Bergen, a Wilton resident, is a self-taught, mixed media and fiber artist. For years she worked alongside her mother, who was a self-taught seamstress, to make clothing for the family as a means to save money. After receiving her PhD in Zoology from the University of New Hampshire in 1996, Bergen began to coalesce her appreciation for fiber with her love of science through the creation of art quilts. Recently, she began to take a more painterly approach to fiber exploration through the use of encaustic techniques, and she has added a new series of mixed media and encaustic pieces to her portfolio which explore texture and geometric grids.

“I look for patterns everywhere I go.  I am intrigued by geometric assemblages th at form a cityscape, a forest, or the night sky.  My appreciation for both the elegance of organization, and the beauty of patterns, informs my work.  The majority of my pieces employ geometric shapes to evoke a feeling, a process or a point of view,” Bergen says.

Pollack’s series is called “Paper Quilts,” and refers to the practical function of quilt making but with contemporary and decorative results. “These small pieces won’t keep anyone warm, but hopefully will evoke a smile,” she says.

Pollack has exhibited at various museums and galleries throughout Connecticut, New York and Arizona. She is co president of Art/Place Gallery, Fairfield, where she lives, and a curator for the Kirshner Gallery at the Fairfield Public Library. She is also an artist member of the Westport Artists Collective, the CT chapter of the Surface Design Artists, and the Carriage Barn in New Canaan.