ROCKLAND—It’s what you call a “fixer upper.”

Those who attended last Saturday night’s third annual bash by The Collective were delighted and amazed to find a small-scale replica of Dorothy Gale’s tornado-transported house smack in the center of Winter Street. The art piece was created by Resisting Entropy, a group of Midcoast artists who work collaboratively within a condensed time frame and shared space to transform reclaimed and found materials into unique and unpredictable artworks.

When Jared Cowan, an artist and owner of Rockland’s Asymmetrick Arts got together with The Farnsworth’s small group of creatives known as The Collective, they were brainstorming a party theme for their upcoming bash “From Kansas to Oz.” Given that The Farnsworth Art Museum had just launched a new exhibition “The Wonderful World of Oz: Selections from the Willard Carroll/Tom Wilhite Collection,” Cowan had a kind of far-out idea.

“At first, we sort of were just laughing, coming up with the concept—let’s build Dorothy’s house after the tornado slammed it into Oz,” Cowan suggested. Mind you, he said this to his artist group with the assumption it would be done—like most of their projects—in 24 hours.

“We said that’s crazy, let’s not do that; it’s way too difficult,” said Andrew White, one of the artists. “Then we said, ‘okay, if you really want to do it. . .’ Then you get 14 or 15 talented people in the same space and everyone just understood and went for it.”

With the presiding group including some carpenters, installation artists, sculptors and painters, the design of the exterior took form as it went. To see a full list of the contributing artists of Resisting Entropy, click here. The slammed-together house was made with all reclaimed and found materials, including sections of fencing from The Farsworth. They built it in eight modular sections, lightly framing up each component, so that it could be taken apart and re-assembled on The Farnsworth’s courtyard after the initial event. “We couldn’t anticipate the end product, and up until midnight, I thought we were behind,” said Cowan. “Then we hit this quantam leap between 12 and 2 a.m. and all of a sudden we made this giant jump and we were sort of three hours ahead. The last part was building the roofing and we didn’t even assemble that until 4:30 in the morning,” he said.

“At some point in the night, we all looked at each other and said, ‘We are a little strange and broken that we find doing this kind of thing fun,” said White. “But I’m glad we all found each other so we can do these kinds of projects.”

It’s like a giant, cock-eyed doll house. There’s a kitchen, living room and bedroom. Inside the foyer, there are working old-fashioned light fixtures, and a reclaimed wood floor. Original paintings have been included like the “Home Sweet Home” welcome mat and the optical illusion staircase by artist, Greta Van Campen. Old photos with broken glass frames tilt on the walls, along with lopsided bookshelves and upended furniture. The house was even electrically wired by artist Eric Leppanen so that the fixtures inside would light up as well as the flood lights surrounding it.

While most of the group concentrated on the exterior, several artists focused on all of the quirky interior details. “We were all inside putting the interior together while everything was being built around us,” said Bethany Engstrom. “So, we were thinking what would happen to the furniture if the house had fallen down. We wanted to create an interior that was still in motion. For example, the chairs are strewn about and other items are hanging in mid-air. Susan brought a lot of materials from her own house to put into this house,” she said.

For now Dorothy’s House can be seen on The Farnsworth’s courtyard on Elm Street. It may be there for about a month. “Before the snow flies,” Cowan said. He said the group is open to hearing from anyone who might be interested in hosting Dorothy’s House on a more permanent basis.

“We should list it on a real estate website and see if anyone bites,” said White.

“It’s probably as weather-and water-tight as 80 percent of the houses in Rockland,” Cowan joked.

To see more photos of The Collective’s third annual bash, check out our gallery, We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Photos by Kay Stephens. She can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com