At Fitness Source II, located on Canal Street in Ellenville, people can get a glimpse of Pamela Wallace's art installation, consisting of spheres suspended by fabric, all held together with a steel framework. "I selected this site because I liked that it was the old Woolworth's building, and I selected that window because I liked that it had a contained space. I made the piece specifically for that window." Similar to Woolworth's transformation into a gym, Wallace's creative expression has drastically changed too.

Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Wallace studied classical piano at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music. However, as her musical studies progressed, in 1984 she found that something wasn't quite right.

"I visited a friend who was a sculptor and it just kind of clicked. Immediately I thought, 'Oh my God, I want to try that.' And I started making sculptures and then that was it. It's just been a major part of my life ever since then." When asked about whether she had practiced visual arts before then, Wallace replies, "it was a pretty sudden switch. I quit doing classical piano, and then maybe six months later I started making sculpture. I hadn't been making sculpture before that."

Wallace earned her bachelor's in sculpture from Bard College and earned master's degrees in both blacksmithing and sculpture from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She currently resides in Germantown and teaches classes in drawing, sculpture and metal-working at SUNY New Paltz.

Wallace's uses a variety of materials, commenting that she works "in mixed media a lot, with metal, wood, plaster, wax, various things." When discussing her philosophy toward her art, she stresses the idea that she physically creates all the art personally, and not just come up with the ideas: "A lot of emphasis for me is placed on me actually making the work myself, and how much I like working with materials and working with tools, and manipulating materials to make a form or a series of forms."

Wallace has fond feelings for the 10x10x10 art event, saying it's "a great opportunity to work with a small community to create a piece that was very site specific. It wouldn't really go anywhere else. I like the opportunity to make a piece that would go in a storefront window. I like the idea of the exposure to the general public rather than just to the art viewing public, who would just see it if they went to a gallery, and in this kind of a situation you get art out into the community where people of all kinds can experience that artwork." Pamela Wallace's installation is on display through the month of July.

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