WHEN THE JOURNEY BECAME A DESTINATION....

Journey 
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Thursday, May 10, 2001

A rectangle composed of what looks like scorched branches hangs in Judith Olson Gregory's home.

After the '91 ice storm, she says, she covered branches with handmade paper. Then she dipped them in dark, acrylic paint and sprinkled bronzy petals on top. The work, called "Storm Bones," isn't pretty, says the artist. But neither was the area then.

"My work usually isn't pretty," she admits. "I'm a conceptual artist. I need it to mean something."

That's how this Rochester woman, 54, ended up making a map-covered unicorn. Students from the Children's School of Rochester watched her for two weeks this winter as she brought it to life

"We decided to call it Journey," she says. "The goal is the journey, a journey of discovery."

That's the other reason she agreed when her friend Elizabeth Stewart asked her to help. Stewart is director of Rochester's Aesthetic Education Institute, which promotes early learning through the arts in schools. She told Gregory she'd spoken to Glenn William of Mid Town Athletic Club. He'd sponsored a horse, but needed an artist. She knew Gregory, a board member of the institute, would be the "perfect person" for the job.

Students from the city elementary school leaned plenty about art -- and life-- as they watched. First they discovered how stenciling is done, as Gregory applied tape to her base coat of tan. The lines formed by the tape would be "streets," the kids learned, and the streets would be part of a Rochester-area map.

Gregory's choice of colors, meanwhile, challenged more traditional thinking. Why black, red, green and blue? they asked. Aren't unicorns usually pastel?

The map also allowed Gregory to add the names of Mid-Town Athletic Club's 40 collaborative partners. Partners' locations are marked on the map -- each with an apple bearing their name. The horse will be displayed outside Mid Town, 200 E. Highland Drive.

- LISA HUTCHURSON

Magical menagerie