Art in Time by Anne Galloway

Paula McCullough has worked with her hands for a long time. Up until a few years ago, she was a manipulating people's sore muscles as a massage therapist; now she's a full-time artist, manipulating found materials into sculptures and even clocks.

Judging from a show of her work at the Lazy Pear Gallery in Montpelier, her main obsession at the moment is an obscure piece of railroad refuse: tie plates. The steel grooved plates, which were used to secure railroad ties are small, perhaps 8 inches by 12 inches, and very heavy.

McCullough covers the plates with refuse she finds in the woods or on the side of the road. Things like old signs, pieces of rusting metal fence, copper wire and elbows and even old puzzles (Humpty Dumpty makes an appearance). She carefully arranges the bits on the plates in an orderly, almost obsessive-compulsive fashion. Her oeuvres may be made of junk, but by golly, they're tidy.

The crowning touch, though, for each one is a pair of hands – the hands of a clock. In one, a clock is trapped inside a metal cage. In another a yellow and black VAST sign is bent in an arc. I like the tension between the energy of the bent metal and the rather benign and slow-moving arc of time represented by the hands.

McCullough is, believe it or not, well on her way to completing a 100-work series of these functional multi-media sculptures. So far, she has finished 79. These clocks are ideal for people who don't really like to know what time it is or for those who are fond of artistically disguised functional pieces. They run between $200 and $425 and come with warranties.

In addition to the clocks, McCullough has also created straight sculptures based on the compact railroad tie plates, and several photo/found-art hybrids that are intriguing.

While you're at Lazy Pear, be sure to check out works by other artists on display for the holidays: John Brickels, Nina Gaby, Wendy James, Janet Van Fleet and Beth Robinson. In addition, Robert Hitzig, co-owner of the gallery, has a new series of satiny and subtly colored wood paintings on view.