Artist Carol Adams Finds and Shares Inspiration in Peninsula

To find inspiration for her organic art, installation artist, weaver, enamelist and sculptor Carol Adams simply steps outside her Peninsula ranch into her 8-acre yard.

“This morning, I was … looking at how tall the trees were,” says Adams, who, along with her former husband, planted 180 trees when they moved in in 1971. “I have a big woods that goes down into the valley.”

Art can be found throughout the 80-year-old’s property, which doubles as her Dimensional Works Of Art studio. She’s made sculptures in her backyard and removed part of her barn ceiling to fit a 16-foot piece. She makes pins at her coffee table, enamels in her basement, weaves upstairs and sculpts at her dining table. She has even previously taken her 6-by-10-foot loom out on the deck.

Her house is just minutes from the Peninsula Art Academy, where she teaches weaving, enameling and drawing. Her work is displayed throughout, including Moss, inspired by childhood days playing in a creek in Rochester, New York.

“Everything is all about texture,” she says. “I wove two pieces on the frame loom. Then I used copper tubing, and I wrapped the edges so I can bend them. … They ripple.”

Adams came to Ohio to study painting at Bowling Green State University but quickly digressed — making a fiber piece depicting one of her paintings and winning first prize in the student art show. She’s continued to break the rules.

“When I started graduate school, I said, I wanted to mix fiber and enamel. They said, You can’t do that. I said, Oh, really?” recalls Adams, who has an MA in art education from Case Western Reserve University and an MFA in crafts from Kent State University. “The next thing I started thinking was that yarn should light up.”

She worked at Centrak Lasers, for which she did laser shows at 14 museums and assisted on one at the Great Sphinx of Giza. She started adding lights to her art. Hanging behind the counter at the academy, Montana — inspired by landscape photos in Time-Life Books — depicts a flowing river with enamel on steel and a blue LED light.

A recent “Hot in Peninsula” academy glass exhibit included Cloudscape I & II, with embroidered airplanes and enamel on hammered copper depicting vector airways, compass roses, clouds and more.

Adams has taught art at Cleveland State University, Youngstown State University, Kent State and Lakeland Community College, where she still teaches drawing. She’s lived in Peninsula for over 50 years and says the village is supportive of artists.

“People take care of each other,” says Adams, who lives with her dog, Artemis, and cat Moon. “The town is very special.”

Peninsula Library & Historical Society

For six years, Adams was on the Peninsula Library & Historical Society board — and spearheaded a renovation of the children’s area. Local woodcrafter Charlie Moyer constructed a hanging, rotating carousel. Adams decorated the carousel and did the lights. “Our library’s very personal. … They keep a list of what you’re reading and listening to,” says Adams, who enjoys mysteries. Find her painting of an old train station in the meeting room.

6105 Riverview Road, Peninsula

Peninsula Art Academy

Adams co-founded the Peninsula Art Academy, which became a nonprofit in 2004. Find her teaching Drawing from Life, Weaving on a Frame Loom, Weaving With or Without a Loom and more. “The drawings are so beautiful they do,” says Adams of her students. Other academy classes include Painting Trees & Foliage, Fused Glass workshops and more. See Adams’ pieces in an on-site gallery fiber show from July 19 to Aug. 23. Buy her works in the store, such as sculptures and enamel critter pins.

1600 Mill St. W, Peninsula

Country Maid Ice Cream & Orchard

Since 1948, this old-school ice cream parlor has been making frozen treats using natural ingredients and local fruits whenever possible. Country Maid Ice Cream & Orchard grows over 2,000 apple, peach, pear and plum trees, along with vegetables and blueberry and raspberry bushes. Adams has coffee ice cream while Artemis enjoys free vanilla pup scoops on the patio. Seasonally, shop the Apple Barn market for fresh fruit and vegetables, apple cider, pumpkins and more.

3252 W. Streetsboro Road, Richfield

Terry Lumber & Supply Co.

Adams knew the late original owner, John J. “Terry” Montaquila, who opened the business as Terry Coal & Supply Co. in 1940. “He took care of everybody in town,” she says. Now operated by third-generation owners as Terry Lumber & Supply Co., it sells lumber, trims, moldings, hardware, decking, doors and more. Adams gets wood pieces for her art, including some from the scrap bin.

1710 Mill St. W, Peninsula