Farmington Art Teacher Turner Oversees Student Mural for CCMC Surgical Wing

When Avis Turner is not teaching art at Farmington High School she is creating works of her own.

Her latest project is in collaboration with her students. She and Farmington students are also working on a mural for the community at the new Connecticut Children's Medical Center hospital wing in Farmington. The mural has an "ocean wave theme," which students will paint onto a "wall-size canvas," Turner said. 

"The theme for the mural,  Waves ~ was inspired by Hokusai's - Japanese print series  - 'the Great Wave,'" Turner said. "Inspired from the architecture- the color palette and tiles in the building on the west side. The other, east side has a theme of earth tones of  nature- with different color palette and Ginko leaves - we will be working on art for that as well."

The project came together after she met program Susan Hight at an art show fundraiser for the Farmington Land Trust, she said. 

"She is really wonderful to work with and has such vision," said Turner, who noted that Hight has been responsible for the art filling the walls at the Hartford location. "Community art is something that is very powerful, positive, engaging, refreshing, and it can be very healing. I believe in this project on many levels."

Turner is also working with art teachers at the elementary and middle schools to coordinate other art production for the hospital.   

She is a former Noah Wallace art teacher. In addition to teaching at the high school in the mornings, she also works at East Farms Elementary School in the afternoon. Turner has taught in Farmington for 12 years and has also previously taught at the college level. 

As a professional artist, Turner said that she is most known for her bronze sculpture of "winged figures," which are sold around the world and locally. The Cooley Gallery in Old Lyme has them on display. 

In the last six years, she has been focusing on developing her drawing and painting skills. 

Her personal studio, which she calls the Cricket House, is located in her backyard on Farmstead Lane. She often teaches summer art classes this year. Now she is teaching some high school students that first took lessons from her in her studio, which she said is a "wonderful full circle."

Most recently, her painting, "Higgs Boson Particle, or rising luna moth" was displayed at the New Britain Museum of Art. The painting is in tribute to the particle and recent Nobel Peace Prize winners "Peter W. Higgs, 84, of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and François Englert, 80, of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium," Turner said.  

"The Higgs, often called the 'god particle,' can best be visualized as a kind of 'cosmic molasses.' It is an energy field of 'glue' which holds everything together; or like a non-fiction version of JK Rowling’s 'invisible cloak,' Turner wrote in a release. 

Coming up, her work will be showcased at the Artists by the River art exhibit and sale to benefit the Farmington Land Trust. The event has been in West Hartford for the past eight years, but is moving to the former Grist Mill restaurant site in Farmington that is now owned by Miss Porter's School. It runs Nov. 22 from 4 to 8 p.m. and Nov. 23 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.