Stuck in Vermont: Metal Sculptor Kat Clear Creates Public Art Flowers in Downtown Vergennes With Help From Welding Students at Northlands Job Corps 

Metal sculptor Kat Clear has been enriching the local landscape with public art for almost two decades. Clear’s works are well known around Burlington, including the four-story sewing machine and cascading quilt at the University of Vermont Medical Center called “Fabric of Life” and giant combination lock bike racks outside Radio Bean and Burlington Telecom. Since 2015, Clear has taken a break from metalwork to focus on raising a family and growing mushrooms in Addison County. Now she’s back with a new public artwork in Vergennes called “Flower Stop.”

Clear teamed up with welding students from Northlands Job Corps in Vergennes to make the piece, which depicts massive stalks of milkweed and rudbeckia and a spray of northern asters. Clear began meeting with the students in December to fabricate the sculpture at Job Corps’ state-of-the-art welding training shop. The work was made possible through a grant obtained by the Vergennes Partnership from the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment of the Arts.

Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger has known Clear for many years and made videos about her in 2007 and 2008. They met up again at Job Corps to watch the piece come to life and, a week and a half later, to see its installation.

The work’s dedication to the citizens of Vergennes will take place at the Tri-Valley Transit bus stop in the heart of downtown on Thursday, June 27, at 4:00 p.m. The transformation of the bus stop into the “Flower Stop” will bring nature and color to the neighborhood.

Filming dates: 6/5/24 & 6/17/24

Music:

• Cheel, “Sunset Dream”
• Carmen María and Edu Espinal, “Summer in Colombia”

This episode of Stuck in Vermont was supported by New England Federal Credit Union.