The house at 135 Highland Avenue is home to a unique display of creative splendor, lovingly rendered in glass and found objects by resident Martha Friend.

By Erin Nolan

Plastic babies waving multicolored wands sit atop plastic, pink horses in Martha Friend’s backyard at 135 Highland Avenue in Somerville. The babies purse their bright red lips and arch their dark eyebrows.

Friend began decorating her yard four years ago when she retired from teaching Health and English as a Second Language at the Revere Public Schools, and Babies on Horseback is the newest addition.

“I had lots of time, which was fabulous, and I really wanted a really big project to keep me busy,” she said while sitting on her front porch and surveying the intricate glass and plastic sea which she has built surrounding her house.

So, Friend got to work building Emerald City, a collection of green, silver, and blue glass ornaments and sculptures clustered together to form a huge hodgepodge of a city. When Emerald City was completed, Friend began her next project, Sapphire City. It sits in front of Friend’s home, a sea of sparkling blue glass, for all of Somerville to see.

“I get a lot of encouragement from people. People seem to enjoy it. They will be walking by, and I get a lot of compliments. People clearly take pleasure in it. You know, it makes them happy,” Friend said and smiled. “So it has encouraged me to continue. Some people stop and they look, and people pull over. If I’m out there working, people stop and chat with me. It’s clearly something that people enjoy, and that has been really encouraging. That’s what art should do. Right? Art should put people in a good mood or make people happy. Give people something that they can relate to? I think so.”

Friend says she loves to open all of the windows and leave her front door open a crack so that she can hear all of the passersby comment on her house while she works in the kitchen or reads in the living room.

“I hear people talking. People walk by and they pull over and get out of their cars,” She said. “They take pictures. It’s so clear from their conversation that I can hear. They can’t see me watching them, but I can see them. And It’s so clear that it makes them happy, kind of gives them a boost. That’s pretty cool, right?”

Despite all of the attention that her house has received, Friend said she hasn’t heard any negative comments.

“If you can make something that people can relate to just on this kind of whimsical, visceral level, nobody complains about it,” she said. “If there are people who think bad things, I don’t hear it.”

All of the positive feedback encouraged Friend to continue to create new installations for her home which has become a local landmark. After Emerald City and Sapphire City, Friend added Are you my Mother?, and then Teapot Graveyard, Dance Party, Babies on Horseback, and so on.

“You know, one thing led to another,” she said about how her home became a sort of make-shift art museum.

Friend has always been what she calls a “found object artist.” She collects interesting objects –like plastic horses and baby statues – that she finds at thrift stores, flea markets, and even the street to build dioramas and other types of art installations. Her work is often featured at Somerville Open Studios.

Outside of found object art, Friend loves to take photographs, collect a variety of objects, cook, travel and garden. She says she spends approximately 15 hours a week working in her garden.