Local artist beautifies Red Rock Park

LYNN – Frequent visitors to Red Rock Park in Lynn will notice that supporters of the area, such as the Friends of Lynn Beach, are often making efforts to beautify the area and make it more friendly to the public.Now, thanks to the volunteer work of a local artist, visitors will have a new piece of art to enjoy as they pass through the park and an area to donate money so that the Department of Conservation and Recreation can continue efforts to maintain the area.The project all began more than two years ago, when emerging North Shore artist Pamela Lee Learned was introduced to the DCR’s Iron Ranger program. The effort was designed to help raise money for local parks and DCR land through a series of iron donation boxes painted by local artists so they would stand out.Learned approached the DCR and offered to put her artistic touch on an Iron Ranger for Lynn, due to the city’s rich history and her affinity with the well-maintained Red Rock Park area.Learned spent two years tossing around ideas and designing the artwork for the Iron Ranger, settling on a painting devoted to famous Lynn resident Lydia Pinkham.”I knew Lynn was an area with an historic tanning and shoe making industry,” she said. “I knew it was known for marshmallow fluff, but what I discovered to be the most intriguing icon of the city was Lydia Pinkham.”Born in in 1819, Pinkham’s life was full of notable achievements that included strong influential ties to the anti-slavery movement and becoming an accomplished herbalist.Her remedies for things such as “female complaints” became popular among neighbors and became so successful it was marketed as Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound.Learned’s Iron Ranger displays a replica of that bottle’s label so that residents can remember Pinkham’s contribution to medicine and the community.”The artwork shown on the Iron Ranger is the nearly 120-year-old label design that adorned every body of Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound,” she said. “It is a picturesque image of 19th century Lynn at dusk. It is my hope that everyone who passes by will enjoy the piece.”For Learned, 38, the project is just the latest in a series of artwork that she credits for turning her life around over the past decade.A ninth grade dropout, Learned took up painting when she was in her 20s as a way to combat crippling depression she says was brought on by a violent childhood.She experimented with sculpture, collages, charcoal and paints and wrote published articles on mental illness, as well as memoir pieces on her own experiences.Learned was so interested in the topic she went on to secure a degree in psychology at North Shore Community College and continues her studies at Salem State College.”I mention this in particular because I was a 34-year-old woman who had dropped out in the 9th grade and got her GED at 17,” she said. ” I hadn’t seen the inside of a classroom for 19 years.”The single mother did not publicly show her art until the age of 32, but since then has embarked on several projects, the latest of which will help keep Red Rock Park open and beautiful for years to come.