The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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October 21, 2007

Former bar owner finds creative path

Shelton creates new from things old

By Amanda Dyslin

MADISON LAKE — Mary Jo Shelton’s had a rough year.

Business at her Madison Lake bar, the Town Pump, suffered various recent changes, such as the legal drinking limit’s reduction to .08. And the final nail was the smoking ban, which already had effects on her business before it was final.

The Pump closed a couple of weeks ago.

“I knew my business wasn’t going to do too good with all the changes and with the non-smoking thing,” she said.

That’s why Shelton took preemptive measures and started looking for a new career before her other one ended. This time she turned toward her creative side.

Shelton had always liked working with her hands, so she’s no stranger to a hammer and saw. She even remodeled the bar to include an apartment to live in.

That may have been her inspiration when she started going into the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Mankato and buying all kinds of doors.

She didn’t have a need to hang them. She intended to transform the unlikely objects into art, some functional pieces and some decorative.

“Since (ReStore) opened, I’ve just gone in and bought different things — cupboard doors and bifold doors — and changed them into different things,” she said.

It’s hard to describe what they are without seeing them, she said. But some of the functional pieces include a toy box and a TV tray.

After she brought them back to ReStore to show Fred Snyder, the man who sold them to her, he was blown away by her creativity.

“I was just kind of dumbfounded,” he said. “For me, they’re cabinet doors. That’s all they’re ever going to be.”

But she saw more, he said.

She painted one cabinet door with chalkboard paint and affixed flowers to use as a message board. One door was made into a breakfast tray.

She put legs on one and stained it to make into a TV tray. Another was more decorative, containing stones and candles.

“My first thought was, ‘This has what to do with me?’ Then she said, ‘These are the cabinet doors I bought here,’” Snyder said. “I did a double take.”

Shelton’s not sure she can make enough money selling the pieces to earn a living. But she is planning to apply for grants to help fund the projects.

She’s not sure when or where she’ll sell the pieces yet.

She has finished many pieces, which are in her apartment and trickling into the vacant bar where she creates some of her art work.

Even while the bar was still open, she’d sometimes sit in the bar after close until 5 a.m. working on the doors.

The creative outlet helped her keep her sanity during difficult times, she said. It was therapeutic to put new use to recycled objects.

“It’s a good way to look at things differently,” she said.

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