Each visit to Passion Works Studio is a visit to joy. It’s part art studio, part gift shop, and part community gathering place — and it bursts with creativity and whimsy. There are bold lines and vibrant color combinations everywhere. Each visit brings a new discovery.
Vintage suitcases and wooden cigar boxes, painted with fanciful animals, quirky characters, or circles upon circles, are granted new life as treasure keepers. Upcycled T-shirts, vests, and jackets get the same Passion Works makeover. There are giant puppets and funky stuffed animals. There are greeting cards, jewelry, ornaments, and refrigerator magnets. No two items are alike.
Passion Works started and continues to spearhead the “Honey for the Heart Parade” in October as a Halloween kickoff.
What the Athens studio is best known for — its signature pieces — are the Passion Flowers, which festoon the walls and hang from the ceiling.
The flowers, made from recycled metal newspaper printing plates, have put the town’s creative spirit on the map. Stop in numerous Athens businesses and you’re likely to find them. They also decorate several downtown outdoor spots.
“My dream is to be a roadside attraction,” says Patty Mitchell, Passion Works founder and executive director.
Her dream started in a 10-by-10-foot corner of a sheltered workshop, where, in 1998, she envisioned people with developmental differences collaborating with others to make art. Her older brother, Timmy, was born with severe developmental differences, and with limited options, was institutionalized in the early 1960s. He died when Patty was 10, and it was because of Timmy that she imagined a world where art is a vehicle for inclusion.
With a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, Mitchell helped others see what she saw. “People are perfect just the way they are,” she says. “We change the environment to fit the people.” Adapting workspaces, tools, communication, instruction, and product development is a Passion Works forte.
It all started, though, with those flowers, and it’s the flowers that have given the place its national and international reach, along with lessons in community-building and economic sustainability.
The studio at the back end of the Passion Works gift shop is the what-is-possible showcase. This is where staff artists collaborate with core artists (those with developmental differences) to follow where fancy leads them. The fancy of a core artist envisioned the hand-sculpted, individually painted Passion Flower design back in 1998.
Another fancy led to a three-dimensional, pop-art-style sculpture of Smokey Robinson. “Alexis, who did that, is consumed — obsessed — with Smokey Robinson, and we absolutely embrace people’s passions,” Mitchell says.
Regardless of the artists’ passions, there is consistency among Passion Works designs. Whether it’s textile centerpieces, large puppets, or any other creation, the bold black outlines, filled in with a color palette of bright blues, yellows, pinks, greens, and purples, make the studio’s creations instantly recognizable.
“We like to add what we are already doing,” says Mitchell.
For example, versions of the large-scale Passion Flowers are now created in smaller sizes using cast-off nubs from Louisville Slugger baseball bat production as a base (another nod to Passion Works' commitment to using upcycled materials). Some flowers pay homage to the Ohio University Bobcat in green and white. The gold-hued flowers are in the Turn It Gold collection, from which 20% of proceeds goes to childhood cancer research.
“I am pleased with how the studio has grown,” Mitchell says. “Our community is our gallery.” That gallery has expanded to include several bits of public art throughout Athens. The latest is a 137-foot-long mural for Habitat for Humanity. The Nelsonville Music Festival in June and September’s Ohio Pawpaw Festival in Lake Snowden have been other opportunities for artist engagement. In December, Passion Works decorates the holiday tree at the Athens County Courthouse.
Passion Works also started and continues to spearhead the “Honey for the Heart Parade” in October as a Halloween kickoff. “Halloween has been the Mardi Gras of Athens,” says Mitchell, “and we like to elevate what is happening.” Costumes and giant puppets are a feature and each year there’s a theme. “This year, we are doing a pond party to highlight Rural Action.” Rural Action is a nonprofit organization committed to sustainability for Appalachian communities.
Passion Works Studio, 20 E. State St., Athens. The studio is open to the public from 6 to 7 p.m. every Wednesday, and all are welcome to help with ongoing projects. For more information, visit www.passionworks.org or call 740-592-3673.
