Titian’s The Flight into Egypt (1506-7) Photo: The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Our theme for the Spring 2018 Maine Arts Journal Issue is Origin Stories.

What are the stories you tell of yourself, your family, and heritage? How do they —or do they at all—figure in your artwork, thoughts and memories? How do they relate to your cultural perspective?

Does your familial country of origin influence your work?  Or are you from many points of origin—an American mutt? Were you, or your family, forced to leave what was home?  Are you from a place that never felt like home, and have you now found that place that is central to you?

We want to share your stories – the true ones, as well as the ones you had to make up. We want to hear: Who You Are, and How did you get Here?

In conjunction with this issue, and narrowing the lens of the topic more specifically to Immigration, Kifah Abdulla (Portland poet, artist and immigrant from Iraq), Titi De Baccarat (Portland artist and immigrant from Gabon) and John Ripton (writer, photographer and historian from Maine) will invite artists to participate in a show of the work by Portland area immigrants around the theme of “Migration Experience.”  

Note: The selection process for this show is not a part of the Maine Arts Journal submission for the Spring Issue.

Journal Submission guidelines
We invite UMVA members to submit up to 4 JPEG images. Include an image list and statement or essay in Word doc. Format, (not a PDF). Image credit list format:  Artist’s Name,  “Title of Work”, medium, size, date (optional), photo credit (if not included we assume it is courtesy of the artist).

Images should be JPEG files, approximately 1000 pixels on short side with total resolution between 500KB to 1.2MB. Image files names must include the artist’s name and the number corresponding to the image list. Put “Origin Stories” in the subject line and submit by email to umvalistings@gmail.com by March 1st deadline. MAJ will limit the “Members’ Showcase” section to UMVA members who have not been published in the past year.

We are no longer able to accommodate artists’ pre-formatted visual essays. Our editors will lay-out text and images submitted using the new guidelines above.

 Maine artists and arts community members can become members of the Union of Maine Visual Artists by clicking HERE. Membership helps support the UMVA’s advocacy and helps make this Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly possible. Or you can provide direct support to the MAJ via the link under “Support MAJ!” For a free subscription to the MAJ, enter your email on the side link under “Subscribe” and a link to this Journal will be mailed to your inbox.

It is the MAJ’s policy to request and then publish image credits. We will not publish images the submitter does not have the right to publish. However, we leave the question of photo credit to the discretion of the submitter when there is no required photo credit (photo by self, image ownership freely given, copyright with contract, copyright expired, work for hire).  It is to be assumed that any uncredited or unlabeled images are the author’s/submitter’s own images. By submitting to the MAJ, you are acknowledging respect for these policies.

Thank you,

MAJ Editorial Board
Natasha Mayers, Dan Kany, Jessica McCarthy, Nora Tryon, Kathy Weinberg