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Artist: Bill Merritt
Shows: Various
About the Shows
Show #1
47th Annual Art in the Park Festival
Broadway and Willis Streets
Columbia, MO 65215
Dates: Sun Jun 4th - Mon Jun 5th
URL: cal.missouri.org
Show #2
7th Annual Art in the Park
Civic Center Park
St. Joseph, MO 64501
Dates: Fri Jun 9th - Sun Jun 11th
URL: www.stjoearts.org
Show #3
Parkville Jazz & Fine Arts River Jam
English Landing Park
Parkville, MO 64152
Dates: Fri Jun 16th - Sat Jun 17th
URL: www.parkvillemo.com/jazzfest
About the Artist
Bill spent over 40 years in Naval aviation and electronics before meeting a lady from Lake of the Ozarks with a very serious attraction to Hummingbirds. After retiring from Boeing, marrying the lady (and the Hummingbirds) and moving to the Lake in 2001 Bill and wife Terrie decided there must be a way to feed her beloved Hummers other than the plastic all-the-same feeders. Formerly a draftsman and sometime sketch artist, Bill was quickly led to a functional craft that not only was different but useful and brought recycled glass back to life.
Many years as a professional wireman translated to a collection of “found” glass containers of all shapes and sizes recycled with copper wire and hand cut and formed copper accents. Miles of wire later Bill and Terrie began showing their creations in Central Missouri as Ozarklake Distinct Décor. These glass and copper feeders include the “vacuum” type and a delicate tube feeder arrangement with multiple feeding stations. Ozarklake feeders now hang in gardens and on decks across Missouri and from California to Tennessee. They also decorate country kitchens and garden windows as distinctive indoor décor. . Each is a unique one-of-a-kind item that accents the glass it was in a former life.
Eventually a beautiful glass turned out not to be usable as a feeder and they had an “aha” moment and found the container in the same motif but right side up became a beautiful and functional paraffin lamp oil candle. Paraffin oil burns without smoke and burns slowly even in a windy environment. Like the feeders, no two are alike, even with the same basic glass; each becomes what it will become.
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