Welcome to the summer journal.

This issue contains an impressive range of images and words many of you (85+) have shared, reflections of your lives in quarantine during the global pandemic.

Your massive response shows that you are creating visual expressions of what is sometimes unspeakable and often unbearable, seeking answers to what is happening, affirming your sense of self and social responsibility. You are speaking truth, being vulnerable, expressing your fears, loneliness, uncertainties, but also joy and healing.

In these exceptional times of pandemic, unemployment, protests against police brutality, and much more, we are witnessing a chapter of history being written every day. We need to maintain our unique visions despite the uncertainties of the present and future. The role of art right now is to be honest, to ask questions and reexamine assumptions.

Natasha Mayers, Nora Tryon, Kathy Weinberg, Véronique Plesch, and Betsy Sholl

Please click on cover image to go to the Introduction of the current issue.

Tom Paiement

Tom Paiement

In July of last year I started a series of portraits in my studio in Bath. I used a stack of etching papers brought back from the University of Iowa print shop years ago when I was a grad student there in the print department. The paper is 30 inches by 22 inches.  29...

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Suzanna Lasker – Corona and Me and Art

Suzanna Lasker – Corona and Me and Art

The frightening news of the COVID-19 virus hit on March 6th. On the seventh, I apologized for missing a family baby shower. The next day began my ongoing quarantine after calling my family, drawing group, and Facebook friends telling them of my decision. I am...

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Embracing Negative Space – Samuel Gelber

Embracing Negative Space – Samuel Gelber

For much more than a year, uninterrupted by current circumstances, I have devoted my attention to at least one drawing a day, sometimes more, inspired by plants and the spaces they create—now especially negative spaces—through their stems, branches, leaves, and...

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Rising to the (Getty) Challenge – Martha Miller

Rising to the (Getty) Challenge – Martha Miller

In mid March, MECA closed its doors due to COVID-19. With no in-person teaching schedule to attend to, I decided to treat the quarantine like an artist residency.  The Getty Museum Challenge inspired a new body of work which I titled Quarantine Characters. The work...

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Véronique Plesch – Teaching in a Time of Confinement

Véronique Plesch – Teaching in a Time of Confinement

On Thursday, 12th of March, Colby College students were told they had to leave campus by Sunday at 5 p.m. The week leading to this momentous decision was filled with anxious uncertainty as we kept hearing about other schools sending their students home and, although...

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Tom Fallon – Poetry

Tom Fallon – Poetry

For certain subjects the least intrusiveness of poetic flourish is crucial. And so here, in a sparseness that is reminiscent of Robert Frost, or more accurately William Carlos Williams, Tom Fallon gives us the profound isolation of an old man living alone and the cost...

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Deborah Cummins – Poetry

Deborah Cummins – Poetry

These two poems by Deborah Cummins are from her new book, Until They Catch Fire. Although the poems were written before our current lockdown, they address questions of how we face difficult situations and continue to live in gratitude and hope. In “A Prayer” Cummins...

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Alan Crichton – Ghost Ships

Alan Crichton – Ghost Ships

A Ghost Ship is a mythical vessel with no living captain or crew aboard, like the Flying Dutchman that can never make port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever, emitting a ghostly light. In the current context, there are many artists these days whose exhibits have...

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LumenARRT! Update Summer 2020

LumenARRT! Update Summer 2020

LumenARRT! is a project of the Artists Rapid Response Team (ARRT!).  We work through the Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA), a members’ organization that advocates for artists and furthers the work of progressive non-profits in the state of Maine. Our video...

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UMVA Portland Chapter Update Summer 2020

UMVA Portland Chapter Update Summer 2020

UMVA Portland members have been holding virtual monthly meetings. A dozen or more members have tuned in at times. Of course, one of the principal concerns is the “re-opening” of the Gallery. While the Portland Media Center is engaged in a measured re-opening, the...

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John Ripton – Open Letter

John Ripton – Open Letter

Open Letter to Maine Artists and Citizens: Four Hundred Years, 8 Minutes and 46 Seconds As artists and members of the Union of Maine Visual Artists, we vigorously condemn the murder of George Floyd. We extend our sympathies to Mr. Floyd's family and friends and to all...

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