From out of the ashes

The summer of 2007 I interned at Worcester Magazine. This is one of the many stories I wrote during my interning period. From out of the ashes Written by Teresa Franco Thursday, 16 August 2007 Artists regain strength — and art — after the Bernat Mill fire By Teresa Franco During the final hours of the fire, the artists of the Bernat Mill complex huddled in a roped-off area and watched their second home burn down to a skeleton of metal poles. A majority of work by these artists became nothing more than a pile of ashes in front of them on Saturday, July 21, when flames took possession of the Mill that had once been an epicenter of a diverse range of activities. "Variety is what made us a great business," artist Laura Cenedella says of the mill. "You could drop your kid off at gymnastics lessons and then walk down the hall to the café and have something to eat." Karin Knapik (second from left) with students from the after-school arts program. Cenedella spent her days at the Mill teaching disabled adults through The Rainbow Pallette TLC program. Her passion for painting began about seven years ago when she was forced to stop working due to a disability, which she discovered to be multiple sclerosis. After a few years of physical therapy, Cenedella's therapist recommended she try painting as a means of easing the symptoms of her illness. "I realized it helped not only physically but emotionally," she says, "I had forgotten who I was. Painting helped me find myself again." Like most of the artists at the Mill, Cenedella lost all her art supplies and the majority of her work in the fire — the exception being four paintings she had been keeping in her house. One of Cenedella's students, fresh out of high school, who was just about ready to start teaching classes of his own, lost a substantial amount of his work to the fire, too. Living only a block away from the Mill, Cenedella witnessed the fire first-hand from her porch after a friend phoned. "I opened the door," she says, "and noticed a huge amount of smoke. I broke down immediately, I started screaming." Cenedella describes the Bernat community as being one big family. "We spent almost every day at the Mill," she says, "so everyone's family got to know everyone else's family." The brick walls of the Mill still stand, but the inside has turned to gray dust and rubble. "Lots of people are still lost," Cenedella says of her fellow members at Bernat, "they don't know where to go or what to do. It's still a shock." Karin Knapik, who lost years of art and journals full of poetry, is trying to conjure up some positive spirit from the unfortunate situation. "It's certainly given me motivation to create more work," she says, "I had two pieces I had been working on that I really wasn't happy with. Since the fire I've revisited the pieces, because it's all I've got now." Knapik, like Cenedella, held classes for low costs through the TLC program. Both women are anxious to find new places to hold their classes, but they are not expecting to get studios with rent as low as Bernat's. Cenedella's and Knapik's surviving paintings are being displayed in an art show that is raising money for those who lost their creative pieces in the fire. Pamela Murphy and Johl DeLorey also feature what is left of their collections. Empty canvases are displayed in tribute to the lost art as well. The show, called Art from the Ashes, is at Alternatives Art Gallery in Uxbridge through September. Those who are willing to help are encouraged to drop off donations of art supplies at the gallery. Currently, the Alternatives Art Gallery has a collage of pictures of what remains of the mill hanging in its windows. Debra Johnson, an employee at Alternatives, says the pictures have captured the attention of the community. "The pictures are really bringing in people," says Johnson, "We've had so many people come in asking what they can do to help." A Web site, www.helpuxbridge.com, has been created in the aftermath of the fire, which lists ways people can get involved in helping out the community. It includes an "Adopt a Business" section, where individuals and organizations can give new supplies and spaces for those affected by the Mill fire, to help them get back on their feet. Links and contact information to hotlines and helpful organizations are also listed. Despite the positive response from the community, the artists still mourn their losses. Knapik points out that she is fortunate enough to not have been financially dependent on her artwork, but empathizes with those who are. "That is the most heart-wrenching," she says of those who make a living from their artwork. "This is their life, this is what they create. It's disheartening."