Stained-glass artist says work inspired by seasons, Sawyier
By CHARLES PEARL
State Journal Staff Writer
 Glazier Mike Long of Stanford Glass and Mirror assisted Laura Mentor, left, with the installation Thursday of the stained-glass panels Mentor designed for the new Paul Sawyier Public Library. Friends ofthe Library contributed $25,000 for one of the three windows and installation.
She shared an inner desire after realizing the two-day stained-glass windows installation would be finished in one long day.
Artist Laura Mentor wants to bring a sleeping bag and stay for a couple of days and nights in the spacious new Paul Sawyier Public Library before it opens in early November.
“It’s hard to put all this work intosomething and then just leave it,” she said to her installation teammates, Mike Long and David Ferry, early Thursday afternoon. “I will have to come back frequently and visit.”
Long is with Stanford Glass and Mirror, which installed all the windows in the library. Ferry is the owner of Fantasy Factory Stained Glass Inc. in Louisville.
“Laura does incredible work,” said Ferry, midway through installing the 15 panels of the left window on the first floor. “If you are overwhelmed by this, wait until you see the birds in the upstairs window,” he told a visitor.
Mentor was commissioned by the library board and Friends of the Library to create three stained-glass windows for the new building on Wapping Street, next door to the old library.
The windows are on the east side of the library facing the old library. Two vertical windows on the first floor are 6 by 12 feet, and the arched window on the second floor – in the children’s section – is 15 feet wide at the base. The arched window has 28 panels.
The first-floor windows feature large wreaths of leaves from Kentucky trees – with deep, rich colors of spring and autumn. The windows are bordered with printed names of the trees. The spring wreath on the left window from the interior has leaves from flowering dogwood, redbud, tulip poplar, wild crabapple, black cherry,
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