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The couple will be in St. Pete next week for the opening of Unpolished Intent, an exhibition of new Strunk works, opening with a reception Nov. 7 at ARTicles Gallery, 1234 Dr. Martin Luther King Street N.<\/p>\nAlthough the views of the Allegheny Mountains are breathtaking, particularly as the leaves take on their fall colors, the northwestern Maryland city of Cumberland has seen better days. Once a major manufacturing hub, after World War II the factories, and the jobs, went east. Today, there are barely 20,000 residents in Cumberland, many of them living below the poverty line, and a whole lot of empty buildings downtown alongside the flowing Potomac River.<\/p>\n
Frank Strunk III fell in love with the place, on first sight.<\/p>\n
Eighteen months ago, the St. Petersburg artist \u2013 he\u2019d been here, swimming happily in the artistic bloodstream, for 30 years \u2013 and his longtime partner Bethany Peabody relocated to Cumberland.<\/p>\n
It was a quick shift. One day they were here, the next they were gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe architecture is amazing \u2013 a lot of historic buildings that are really cool,\u201d enthuses the 61-year-old Strunk, who\u2019s known for his industrially-inspired sculptures of metal (he\u2019s an accomplished welder), concrete and other found materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they\u2019re old, like skeletons from the past. It\u2019s nicknamed the Steeple City, because of all the church steeples \u2013 although most of the churches are not operating any more. There are a lot of big brick buildings that aren\u2019t abandoned, they\u2019re just not being used for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple will be in St. Pete next week for the opening of Unpolished Intent, an exhibition of new Strunk works, opening with a reception Nov. 7 at ARTicles Gallery, 1234 Dr. Martin Luther King Street N.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a study in the texture and the architecture, and the building aesthetic, of the old brick homes, built in the 1900s, in Cumberland,\u201d the artist explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a long history of working in construction, although I never laid a single brick anywhere. I\u2019ve always loved the aesthetic of concrete and rebar, certainly in my flatwork and my sculptural work, and I\u2019ve loved finding and salvaging these old bricks and cutting them with my brick saw or my tile saw, into smaller bricks. And then using mortar to mortar the bases together.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a careful symmetry in Strunk\u2019s art, despite its sometimes rough and rugged appearance. \u201cThe geometry and the handwork that goes into it is f\u2014ing enormous,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s really meditative as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the way it looks when I put \u2018em together? Some of those bricks are one inch long. They\u2019re little bricks made from bigger bricks! I look at that and my mind just ignites with inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n
FROM THE ARCHIVE: The Catalyst Sessions: Frank Strunk III<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d been wanting to leave St. Petersburg for a while,\u201d Strunk relates. \u201cThe list is not long, but there were some definite bullet points.\u201d His aggro laundry list included a growing frustration with the commercialization of downtown and its original, funky art studios and galleries. He was there in the earliest of days, started the band Fingerpuppet here, and to this day has a \u201cboatload\u201d of local friends who are also boiling with outrage over the city\u2019s transformation.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they\u2019re building straight up,\u201d he says, with amazement. \u201cWatching sky-space disappear gives the illusion, the sensation, of being buried. You\u2019re laying in your grave and they\u2019re throwing dirt on top of you. You\u2019re watching these buildings go and you\u2019re thinking \u2018Who the f\u2013k\u2019s gonna live in here?\u2019 And the answer is, there\u2019s waiting lists to get in there.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cbitch slap,\u201d Strunk says, was the construction of a 40-plus story hotel called Art House. That, he insists, was an audacious name, all things considered \u2013 he felt like it was like putting a corporate tattoo on the backside of every artist in town.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when I got the opportunity to go, I was off like a rocket.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2023, he and Bethany were driving to an art festival at Frostburg State University in northwest Maryland. Strunk\u2019s hometown was Rockville, 126 miles to the east (and several lifetimes away).\u00a0 At dusk, what photographers call the golden hour because the light is particularly warm and direct, they passed through Cumberland. To them, it looked like a postcard.<\/p>\n Cumberland, Maryland (Wiki Commons)<\/p>\n The next morning, they drove back. \u201cAnd we\u2019re there for two and a half hours, walking,\u201d Strunk recalls. \u201cBecause I just couldn\u2019t unglue my eyes from everything. I took maybe 400 pictures. I don\u2019t want to say I was hooked, but I was really interested in what was going on.<\/p>\n \u201cInside a week, I was like \u2018Man, this place is really speaking to me.\u2019 One thing that struck me was how quiet it is \u2013 I\u2019m talking quiet quiet, at night, when we sleep with the windows open, it\u2019s so soothing to not hear anything. The peacefulness of it really made an impression on me. That, and the architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n He made a deal to lease out the second floor of what had been a concrete factory \u2013 there was something serendipitous in that \u2013 and after he cleaned out the cobwebs, and chased out the pigeons, he ran electricity, built a bathroom and settled in. There\u2019s a landscape business down below, on the ground floor.<\/p>\n Their vintage 1907, brick home is less than a mile from the studio. Strunk walks to work every day, grabbing a coffee on the way, in a little place where they know his name and they greet him at the door.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to walk everywhere. I love to walk. But in St. Pete, you\u2019re just flat. Florida is just the flattest flat. You can get four or five miles in \u2013 that\u2019s a good clip, but it\u2019s not hard.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not pulling four or five miles in Cumberland. There are hills here, dude, and the difference in elevation, just to walk downtown, is tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n Find information on the Nov. 7 reception (5-7 p.m.), the exhibit and the gallery on the ARTicles website<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Strunk-1-300x152.jpg\")
Change of seasons<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Cumberland-Maryland-300x235.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Strunk-7-300x300.jpg\")
Bethany didn\u2019t need a lot of convincing to trade booming, morphing St. Petersburg for a tiny \u2013 and quiet \u2013 Appalachian mountain town. \u201cI left the bright lights and bright colors, and sometimes chaotic energy, of St. Petersburg\u2019s art scene \u2026 if you will,\u201d Strunk says.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Strunk-3-220x300.jpg\")
Strunk sounds like a booster from the Cumberland Chamber of Commerce, he\u2019s so enthused. \u201cIt\u2019s a gritty little railroad town \u2013 there\u2019s CSX, Amtrak and a dedicated coal train,\u201d he points out. \u201cThere\u2019s still mining going on up here. And some of them run right behind my studio, all day.\u201d<\/p>\n