by Paula M. Manini
TRINIDAD — Because of her “Shame to Pride” art project, Stephanie Calvert has come to grips with her former life in Thatcher, a small community north of Trinidad. When Calvert was ten years old, her parents moved the family from San Diego to escape the dangers of big city life and find a safe and inspiring place close to nature.
They bought the Thatcher School intending to transform the deteriorated building into a family haven and artists’ retreat, but soon realized it would take more resources than they could muster. Her mother compensated by collecting things to add to her trove of family heirlooms and other treasured objects.
Calvert’s shame came from living amid rubble as her mother crossed the threshold into hoarding and living without running water, central heat, or full electrical service. Despite these challenges, she graduated from Hoehne High School in 2004 and received a bachelor’s degree in studio art from Wesleyan University in Connecticut four years later. Soon after, the aspiring artist moved to New York City.
After her mother suffered serious brain trauma in a bicycle accident, Calvert visited her parents in Trinidad several times before deciding it was time to confront her past. Last year she returned to the Thatcher School where she cleared a space to live and create art using her mother’s hoarded objects.
Calvert, now 28, is “grateful to have the opportunity to use art to process it all and come to a place of peace and acceptance … and see the potential that my parents saw and appreciate the dream that they had for us at the time.”
She will show some of her work in Trinidad next month (details to be announced) but Calvert’s dream is to have her own show in the Big Apple.
Through August 26, photographs, a video, and more about her story can be seen on www.indiegogo.com, which is a website that “empowers people to fund their dreams.”
