A Storied Past is the third exhibition in the inaugural season of the Millbrook Arts Project, curated by Sharon Bates. Artists Scott Brodie, Andrea Burgay, and Steve Rein each utilize distinct materials and methods, yet they share a fascination with everyday objects and images – mundane elements that become carriers of unexpected storylines.

Scott Brodie makes intimate portraits of his domestic possessions that tell the tale of life as he lives it. He prefers close observation and the “butteriness” of oil paint to reveal the play of light on both the subject matter and the paint surface of a canvas.

Andrea Burgay works through a regenerative process of adding and removing layers of handmade and collected materials to bring the past, the unwanted and overlooked, into the present in a new form. In her ongoing Fictions series, she gives life to discarded books, transforming them into sculptural collages that reimagine their lost or fragmented stories.

Steve Rein draws inspiration from vintage snapshots – amateur photographs he finds in thrift stores and at garage sales. In these abandoned images, he uncovers unguarded moments of vulnerability and quiet humanity. His paintings preserve the mystery of the original photo while layering on the passage of time, painted directly onto reclaimed wood using richly pigmented lettering enamels. The vivid colors stand in stark contrast to the worn, aged surfaces, adding both tension and resonance.

If every picture tells a story, then each work in this exhibition carries a layered and evocative past – inviting viewers to reflect on memory, transformation, and the narratives embedded in the objects and images we leave behind.