Artist Julia Trawick Knight, a Cedartown native, has loaned several of her sculptures for use in a public exhibition ongoing at the Cedartown Welcome Center.

Knight hosted a “meet the artist” reception at the center, housed inside the Cedartown Depot at 609 Main St., Sunday. Several old friends stopped in, along with many out-of-town visitors who were riding through on the Silver Comet Trail.

“We had a good crowd,” Knight said. “Sixty people came and signed in (on the guest register).”

The pieces on display at the Depot include sculptures commissioned for others and loaned back to her for this exhibition, and other pieces she has done in pursuit of her own artistic vision. The sculptures will be on display through July 7.

An accomplished artist in various mediums, Knight focuses on sculpture. She spends part of each year in Cedartown and part in Pietrasanta, Italy, where she maintains a studio and foundry.

Knight, the daughter of Elsie Jo and Stovall Trawick, attended Cedar Lake Elementary School before transferring to Thornwood School for Girls.

Knight began her art studies in 1973 at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., with Richard Duncan and Ed Carlos. She transferred to the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Fla. to continue study in sculpture and finger painting with Bob Larsen and Ethelia Patmagrian. While in Sarasota, she completed a four-year apprenticeship with the well-known sculptor Leslie Posey. She said her mentor is nationally renowned sculptor Stanley Bleifeld.

She also completed additional training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

In 1979, she moved to Rome to establish an art studio focusing on sculptural portraits. After some years in retirement, during which she raised her three children, she returned to active sculpture work in 1996. Since then, she has completed commissioned sculptures for clients in northwest Georgia, Houston, Texas and Atlanta.

Knight’s bronze sculpture subjects have included babies, young children, teenagers, businessmen, a physician and a favored family pet, an English setter.

Since 2002, she has made Pietrasanta, Italy her resident art studio, casting and sculpting in the old art colony of Michelangelo’s Toscana.

“Working in Italy has made a huge difference in my concentration and the quality of my work,” Knight said.

In 2006, she marked her 10th anniversary in business by unveiling three sculptures in Cartersville. In February 2006, a bronze bust of President Jimmy Carter was unveiled in the Hall of Presidents at the Booth Museum of Western Art. In April that same year, her Tree Mandala sculpture was presented to Georgia Highlands College by a group of donors. It now hangs in the entrance hall of the Cartersville campus.

Finally, in May 2006, the Morgan Monument to Education was unveiled at the new Summer Hill Complex in Cartersville. The sculpture is dedicated to the memory of two teachers at the former all-black high school. Today, the nine-foot sculpture towers over the former campus.

In the fall of 2006, Knight sculpted the Erika Memorial, as a commission for the parents of a deceased teen. The memorial was unveiled at Darlington School and was dedicated to the graduating Class of 2007, the girl’s classmates.

In 2008 and 2009, she participated in Sculpture in the South, in Summerville, S.C. In 2009, her work was accepted into three juried exhibitions in the metropolitan Atlanta area. She has received accolades such as the People’s Choice Award for Tree Mandala from the Abernathy Arts Center national Juried show. She won Honorable Mention from the Trees in Art exhibit, and also in the 22nd Annual Mable House Arts Center National Juried Show in Mableton.

The ongoing exhibit at the Cedartown Welcome Center is Knight’s first time showing her work in her hometown. It is also the first time the welcome center has hosted an artist’s exhibit.

“I want to extend a special ‘thank you’ to Ramona Ruark and the board of the Cedartown Welcome Center for allowing me to display my sculptures,” Knight said.

She also extended thanks to Crawford Cabinets, for getting the bases of her sculptures ready for the exhibit; and also Bussey’s Florist & Gifts and Crickette’s Cakes, which provided flowers and refreshments.