GREENSBURG, Pa. — The walls tower 10 feet high, stitched together from more than 500 cardboard boxes. Inside, painted passages twist and turn, beckoning visitors to lose themselves. Some corridors lead to dead ends. Others spill into bright rooms bursting with color and pattern. For those who linger, each section offers a riddle: Which piece in the Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s permanent collection inspired this space?
For artist Stacey Pydynkowski, one of six creatives chosen to paint the museum’s summer centerpiece — a walkable, life-size art maze — the installation is more than a spectacle. It’s a conversation.
“Every piece in the maze is connected to something from the collection,” Pydynkowski said in an interview last month. “It’s about merging past and present. People are encouraged to hunt for the connections. It’s playful, but it’s also about looking deeper.”
The project, open through Aug. 17 in the museum’s Cantilever Gallery, is a collaborative feat led by California artist Chris Mel and built with help from local high school students. Each artist was given roughly 800 square feet of wall space to transform, creating an immersive experience that rewards curiosity.
Pydynkowski, known for her dreamlike portraits and floral motifs, found herself painting at a child’s eye level to imagine how the maze’s youngest visitors might see it. “When you’re three feet tall, these walls feel enormous,” she said. “It’s magical to watch kids wander through and interact with it.”
The museum has made admission to its permanent galleries free, with a small fee for the maze itself ($5 for visitors under 18, $10 for adults). On Aug. 10, entry to the maze will also be free, a date Pydynkowski warns may be bustling.
The Greensburg installation is just one of several public art projects keeping Pydynkowski busy this year. In Johnson City, Tenn., a portrait she created once printed on journals and sold at Pittsburgh’s Handmade Arcade, will soon be wrapped around a traffic control box. In downtown Greensburg, a permanent “Art in the Alley” installation she contributed to continues to evolve with new work.
Later this fall, she will join 59 other artists at the Manos Gallery in Tarentum, Pa., for the 24 Minis exhibition, which challenges participants to create twenty-four 6-by-6-inch paintings. For Pydynkowski, it’s been an unexpected shift in scale.
“After painting an 800-square-foot mural in five days, one brushstroke could cover one of these little canvases,” she said. “But small works feel less sacred. I’ve given myself permission to experiment more.”
Her 24 Minis series builds on a previous “calendar” collection she painted in real time, with each piece reflecting the emotional texture of a month. This time, she is organizing the works by season but in a loose, abstract way, blending colors and motifs that evoke the contradictions of human life.
“I’m trying to capture emotions that sometimes feel intangible,” she said. “The beauty and the pain of the human experience. My hope is that someone will look at a piece and feel less alone.”
It’s a hope already realized for at least one collector. Desiree Vuocolo, founder of LocalGood, which supports artists and craftspeople, recalls a moment when a man who had never bought art before purchased a Pydynkowski original for his daughter after hearing her speak on TalkShopLive.
“He let her choose from the collection, and now it hangs in her room,” Vuocolo said. “That’s the magic of what Stacey does she connects with people.”
As the summer winds down, Pydynkowski says she’s grateful not just for the opportunities, but for the unpredictable way art can meet someone exactly where they are.
“When a piece leaves my easel, it’s not mine anymore,” she said. “It’s time for it to take on a new story.”