August 2, 2001

BY LAURIE DORAN

SOUTH GARDINER -- "I've worked in the corporate world, and what I do now is far more rewarding," said Curtis Brown, one of the founders of Brown's Foster Home. Located on River Road in South Gardiner, the home was established 18 years ago and has welcomed teen-age boys with disabilities including autism, birth defects and severe behavioral problems.

Curtis Brown and Mark Pelletier call themselves facilitators, partners to people with disabilities. By providing a caring environment, they encourage their clients to focus on their talents and abilities instead of their disabilities. Most of the clients have lived at Brown's home for more than seven years. One of the clients has been at Brown's foster home since it opened. The two are proud that three of their clients recently "graduated" and are able to live with minimal assistance in an apartment house across the street from the foster home. Three of the seven clients work part time in the community. But this is only the beginning of their remarkable story.

Pelletier and Curtis offer their clients a program called "Arts and Crafts Carpentry," designed to help develop fine motor and communication skills. "Inspired by our hikes in the local woods and our interest in wildlife, we decided to build birdhouses," Pelletier said. "What started out as an arts-and-crafts project has turned into a vocational and educational opportunity for all of us."

Tim Barton preferred to build saltbox and Cape-style birdhouses with shingled roofs. Many ideas were suggested for materials to shingle the roofs of the bird- houses, but none proved satisfactory. Pelletier and his clients scoured the workshop classroom to find a suitable roof material. At last, a bag of pine cones, left over from Christmas projects provided the answer. "Tim's face brightened," remembered Pelletier, as he ripped off a pine cone petal and snipped the edge to square it off. "Tim is now the expert at shingling the roofs of the birdhouses with pine cone petals." The pine cone roofs became a trademark of these unique birdhouses. It takes anywhere from 400 to 1000 pine cone petals to shingle a single birdhouse roof. These talented artists find creative ways to use antiques and natural materials to build the birdhouses. All are built from recycled materials. Unusual items are used for the perches, such as kitchen utensils, rusted hardware, a maple syrup spigot, a water faucet or whatever else is available. Every birdhouse is different, a unique work of art.

When this endeavor began four years ago, it took almost a year to build the first birdhouse. Pelletier and Curtis had to do 90 percent of the work because the students did not have all the necessary skills. Four years and 800 birdhouses later, the students do 90 percent of the work.

There are 40 steps to build one birdhouse, and each house takes about 10 hours from start to finish. The birdhouses are built with great care every step of the way. They are meant to be used outside, though many people prefer to collect them as works of art.

"Building the birdhouses continues to be a truly collaborative effort extending beyond the workshop. Local carpenters call us if they have scrap lumber they think we might be able to use. Neighbors bring us pine cones. Scott Shaw and Keith Keller do a great job at shingling the roofs. Graham Weston is the 'assembly man' who nails together the frame of the birdhouses," Pelletier said.

(image) Graham Weston is poised with his hammer in the workshop at Brown's Foster Home in South Gardiner. The birdhouses made here by Weston and his friends have become popular folk art. They are available at shops throughout the area and at various fairs. LAURIE DORAN

Brown's clients are enthusiastic about their birdhouse project and work at their own pace when they are inspired. Each client receives a check for every birdhouse sold, and they are excited about their growing success. "Our creations have continued to evolve and improve as we all become better at our craft. All the birdhouses are photographed, numbered and dated," Pelletier said.

The services offered by Recycled Reflections have grown over the years. They offer gift certificates, custom designs, reproductions, a photo collage card of the building of a birdhouse, special gift packaging, and a "Bird of the Month" club. They also have a Web site, recycledbirdhouse.com.

In 1998, two birdhouses built by one of the clients were submitted to a juried statewide competition for artists with disabilities. The client, who has extreme difficulty in social situations, overcame that hurdle at the State House as he shook hands with Gov. Angus King. Other honors include being juried into competitive craft shows, featured in an auction for Maine Public Broadcasting and the Children's Discovery Museum. Recently, the birdhouses were selected for inclusion in the Artistree Open House and the Bowdoin College "Sunsplash." In Bar Harbor as part of a week-long festival of the arts, two clients demonstrated the making of birdhouses at the Window Pane Gift Shop, fascinating customers with the process.

Recycled Reflections is bustling with activity as they prepare to increase their stock of quality birdhouses to be featured for sale at the Maine Festival Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Thomas Point Beach in Brunswick. They will also be demonstrating their craft at the fair. "They are not just birdhouses. They are works of art," said Pelletier. This form of art has enhanced both the lives of the clients and the facilitators. "Every week," Brown said, "I am delighted and surprised by the growth of our clients. These people are special. They have enriched my life, and it works both ways." Creativity blossoms in a caring atmosphere, a fact that is surely "reflected" in these folk-art birdhouses.

Capital Weekly 2001
BY LAURIE DORAN